# AutoCua vs TinyFish (slim)

> TinyFish scores 68.2 (B) to AutoCua's 44.3 (E) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-tinyfish.md (~5,400 tokens) · this version ~3,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-tinyfish.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-tinyfish
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
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TinyFish scores 68.2 (B) on agent readiness against AutoCua's 44.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AutoCua leads on payments & pricing. Both do browser automation.

- AutoCua: E 44.3, rank #1100 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/autocua.min.md
- TinyFish: B 68.2, rank #268 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish.min.md
- AutoCua, good for Developers who want a local agent to operate desktop apps, their own browser or phones across platforms, on a machine they control. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 55. Also No key needed to call it; Open source.
- TinyFish, good for Agents that want one account for a goal-driven web agent, a raw CDP browser, and free search and fetch. Ahead on Reliability, 60 against 25; Schema & documentation, 85 against 42; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 55; Security & auth, 60 against 38; Maintenance & community, 80 against 65; Transparency & trust, 59 against 42. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.

| Category | AutoCua | TinyFish |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 25 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 42 | 85 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 38 | 60 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 55 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 65 | 80 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 42 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AutoCua | TinyFish |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ashish Yadav and contributors (ComputerUseAgent on GitHub) | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://agent.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Tiny Fish's terms of service. The MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` and the cookbook are MIT. The SDK packages state no licence in npm or PyPI metadata |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-24 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | none | 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, TinyFish +43: AutoCua 42 (Framework reading. No API reference or typed interface beyond run_agent's documented arguments (5 of 25). No llms.txt (0). The README says what each mode drives and where it runs, and agent_capabilities.md lists what it can do (16 of 20). Modes and device are documented strings (6 of 15). Many examples, no documented errors (10 of 15). Tags without a changelog (5 of 15). 5 + 0 + 16 + 6 + 10 + 5 = 42.); TinyFish 85 (Graded on the REST API. `llms.txt` now links OpenAPI documents for seven APIs (browser, datasets, fetch, main, monitor, research, search). They sit on agent.tinyfish.ai, which we treat as blocked since 1 November, so the counts below are per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November, from the main document (28 operations) and the Browser document (3) (25). `llms.txt`, a 531 KB `llms-full.txt`, a Markdown twin of every page and a single page for coding agents (10). All 31 operations read carry a description, several say which endpoint to pick instead, and the MCP tool definitions state when to use and when not to use each tool (17). 189 enums in the main document, ranges such as `max_steps` 1 to 500, and unknown fields rejected. 730 of 1,068 properties carry a description, `goal` is free text by design and the MCP `search` tool takes a JSON-encoded `fetch` string (12). 698 examples in the main document, every operation documents an error response, and an error-code page gives a fix for each code (14). The path is versioned `/v1`. The Pulse changelog still stops at 22 June 2026 and the docs have no API changelog (7). 25+10+17+12+14+7 = 85.)
- Reliability, TinyFish +35: AutoCua 25 (Local package. Installs from PyPI as AutoCua with Python 3.10 or later and the supported platforms stated (20). No CI runs the tests; the only workflow, use_case_label.yml, labels issues (0). GitHub issues weren't read, so the open-issue line is scored absent (0). Four tags in a week with no changelog file (5). Version 0.1.9 (0). 20 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 25.); TinyFish 60 (Graded as a hosted API. agent.tinyfish.ai/status is the vendor's own page with five components and 90 daily bars each, but no incident write-ups (15 of 20). On 1 November agent.tinyfish.ai answered its robots.txt with a redirect to a sign-in page, which we treat as a blocked host, so the page wasn't re-read. Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November, the Agent API showed no downtime from 11 July to 8 October 2026, the Browser API 420 minutes across six days (120 on 28 September), the Search API 1,500 minutes across seven days (420 on 7 August) and the Fetch API 240 on 27 August. Several outages of an hour or more, so 5 of 30, which is also the value for an unread history, so the unread weeks from 9 October can't move it. Limits are published on the pricing page and in the docs (Search 30 requests a minute and 500 an hour, Fetch 150 URLs a minute, 2 concurrent Agent runs, 5 concurrent Browser sessions) (15). Search and Fetch 429s carry `Retry-After` and `X-RateLimit-*` headers, the docs give backoff guidance and the SDKs retry 429 and 5xx. The Agent pending-run 429 has no `Retry-After` and run creation has no idempotency keys (11). The pricing page lists a 99.99 per cent uptime SLA for Enterprise, with no SLA document found (5). Browser, Search and MCP were declared generally available in June 2026 and the API is `/v1`. The SDKs are 0.x and `max_steps` is still beta-gated (9). 15+5+15+11+5+9 = 60.)
- Agent ergonomics, TinyFish +24: AutoCua 55 (Framework reading. One call with a mode, provider, model and task runs a whole agent (20 of 25). A separate compression agent splices handoff summaries in, and runs are capped and stoppable (15 of 20). Permission and blocked-input errors are reported specifically, with no error reference (8 of 20). No resume or retry semantics described (2 of 20). Sensible defaults (simulators unless device is set), Python only (10 of 15). 20 + 15 + 8 + 2 + 10 = 55.); TinyFish 79 (Fetch takes an output format, include and exclude selectors, a cache age and a per-URL timeout, and run reads choose whether screenshots come back as URLs or inline. The MCP docs page now lists 35 tools, among them dataset, monitor and research tools, and the proxy repository's reference (28 September) lists 28 (18). Run lists take a cursor, a limit of 1 to 100 and filters for status, goal text, dates and an `owner` of `me` or `team`, and Search pages from 0 to 10 (18). Errors carry a code, a message, optional `details` and a `request_id`, and wallet denials add `non_retryable` and balance fields (19). The docs still say run creation doesn't support idempotency keys and a retry may create duplicate runs. Cancels, research cancels and session deletes are idempotent and a replayed wallet top-up is credited once. We couldn't read MCP annotations without signing in (9). A run needs only `url` and `goal`, a browser session needs nothing, and there are official Python and TypeScript SDKs and a CLI (15). 18+18+19+9+15 = 79.)
- Security & auth, TinyFish +22: AutoCua 38 (Framework reading (telemetry, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Provider keys stored in a local folder with Chrome profiles (10 of 30). The worker tools are an allow-list with no write tool, unseen ids are refused, downloads need a yes, but on Windows the model answers UAC elevation prompts itself through a kernel driver, with no person asked (6 of 20). The scraping ruleset has a prompt-injection instruction to log page text that gives instructions (10 of 15). Runs are logged in the app, with no audit log (7 of 15). No security policy, disclosure route or advisories found (5 of 20, for the vault and certificate handling). 10 + 6 + 10 + 7 + 5 = 38.); TinyFish 60 (REST calls take an `X-API-Key` header. Keys are created and deleted in the dashboard and shown once, with no scopes found. Contract organisations add personal and workflow keys that admins can revoke, which separate ownership but not permissions. MCP uses OAuth 2.1, and run IDs are separated between CLI or REST tokens and MCP tokens (21). Vault credentials are opt-in per run with `use_vault` and can be limited with `credential_item_ids`, and the docs say the agent never sees passwords. Organisation workflow keys can't use vault credentials or profiles, and admins can set a spend cap that stops usage. No read-only key or approval step for agent actions was found, and `max_steps` is beta-gated (9). Pages are untrusted content. The plugin page mentions safety rules for untrusted content, and the Fireworks integration guide now tells callers to treat Search results as untrusted because they can contain prompt injection, with a system prompt that says never to follow instructions in them. The Agent and Browser docs carry no such guidance (6). Each run keeps per-step screenshots and optional HTML snapshots, usage lists exist for Search, Fetch and Browser sessions, and audit logs are listed under Enterprise (11). security.txt is valid until 1 September 2027, and the disclosure policy v1.1 of 15 September 2026 has safe harbour and discretionary rewards with no formal bounty. The terms and the pricing page cite ISO 27001, and the trust centre that would show it is drawn by script and was unread (13). 21+9+6+11+13 = 60.)
- Transparency & trust, TinyFish +17: AutoCua 42 (MIT (30). Says it sends data only to the chosen model provider and keeps everything else locally, and the source agrees (20 of 30). No deprecation policy (0). States no telemetry, and none was found (20). 30 + 20 + 0 + 20 = 70.); TinyFish 59 (The platform is closed with published terms, effective 17 August 2026. The MCP proxy and cookbook are MIT, and the SDK packages state no licence in npm or PyPI metadata (14). The terms allow Tiny Fish to review runs and to train and improve its models on customer data, which is stated plainly. The privacy policy of 14 December 2025 gives no retention periods and names TinyFish Inc. in Cupertino, while the terms name Tiny Fish, Inc. in Los Altos. No public DPA was found (10). No deprecation policy was found. The docs flag two parameters as deprecated without dates, and the terms give 30 days' notice of material changes to the terms (5). No subprocessor list or hosting location was found on readable pages. The enterprise page says data residency is agreed by contract, and the trust centre was unread (3). 14+10+5+3 = 32.)
- Maintenance & community, TinyFish +15: AutoCua 65 (v0.1.9 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Four tags in 90 days (20). Issues and pull requests weren't read (0 of 25). The PyPI wheel is current (15). No CI; dependencies pinned per OS in requirements files (0 of 10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 65.); TinyFish 80 (`tinyfish` 0.11.0 was published to PyPI on 24 October 2026 and 0.10.0 on 21 October, per PyPI's release feed (30). Eight Python SDK releases since 3 August (0.5.0 on 4 August to 0.11.0), counted half as SDK tags, still more than three (20). npm couldn't be read on 1 November, so the TypeScript SDK and CLI dates rest on the 8 October check (`@tiny-fish/cli` 0.48.1 on 7 October, `@tiny-fish/sdk` 0.8.0 on 29 September). The Pulse changelog still stops at 22 June 2026. Support is by e-mail and Discord, and the public MCP proxy repository has commits to 31 October. We didn't read issue reply times (8 of 15 on the closed-service line). The hosted MCP server is in the official MCP registry as `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent`, version 1.0.1, published 17 February 2026, and both SDKs are current (15). The MCP proxy repository runs CI, Renovate, and OSV and secrets scanners, cleared 11 OSV dependency findings on 6 October, and publishes through npm trusted publishing. The SDK packages name no source repository (7). 30+20+8+15+7 = 80.)