# Browser Use vs Selenium

> Browser Use scores 77.9 (BB) to Selenium's 73.6 (BB) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Browser Use scores 77.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Selenium's 73.6 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Selenium leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Browser Use accepts x402. Selenium doesn't.

- Browser Use: grade BB, 77.9/100, rank #18 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browser-use.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browser-use.json
- Selenium: grade BB, 73.6/100, rank #90 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/selenium.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/selenium.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 120 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Browser Use (BB)

Good for: An agent that wants to hand a whole browser task to a hosted agent and get a result back, or that needs a low-cost cloud browser over CDP, and for unattended agents that can pay by x402.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70
- Security & auth, 59 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 90 against 60

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The privacy policy says inputs are used to train Browser Use's AI models, with no opt-out described outside Enterprise zero data retention

### Selenium (BB)

Good for: Agents that write test or automation scripts in any of five languages, and teams with a Grid.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 94 against 77
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 65

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: No MCP server from the project. The docs point to community servers and say they are third-party


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Browser Use | Selenium | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 87 | 90 | Selenium +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 89 | Selenium +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 70 | Browser Use +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 43 | Browser Use +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 60 | Browser Use +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 94 | Selenium +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 74 | Selenium +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **77.9 · BB** | **73.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browser Use | Selenium |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Browser Use | Selenium project (Software Freedom Conservancy) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.browser-use.com/api/v4` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | yes | no |
| Licence | MIT for the open-source library and the SDK. Browser Use Cloud is a proprietary service under Browser Use's terms of service | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.browser-use/browser-use` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-15 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 117k stars, 107k npm/wk, 2.1M PyPI/wk | 35k stars, 1.8M npm/wk, 6.9M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Browser Use.** The hosted cloud accepts x402 top-ups in USDC on Base with no account or API key, and publishes prices, rate limits and three OpenAPI documents. The privacy policy says inputs are used to train Browser Use's models, API keys have no documented scopes, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs.

**Selenium.** Selenium is stable, Apache-2.0 software on 4.51.0 with bindings in five languages, CI passing on trunk, an llms.txt and an agent guide added in September 2026. It has no MCP server of its own, Selenium Manager sends usage statistics by default, and Grid accepts unauthenticated sessions unless a username and password are set.

## Before you call either

### Browser Use

1. Send the key as `X-Browser-Use-API-Key` with no Bearer prefix. A Bearer header returns 401
2. Stop browsers with `PATCH /api/v4/browsers/{id}` and `{"action":"stop"}`. Closing CDP or the SDK client leaves the browser billing
3. Poll `GET /runs/{id}/status`, not the full run, and wait for the returned Retry-After on 429, which can be 300 seconds at the edge
4. Before resubmitting after a timeout, read the existing run's status. The server keeps running and may already have submitted a form
5. With a wallet and no key, call x402.api.browser-use.com on `/api/v2` or `/api/v3` routes. A task stops with INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS if credit runs out mid-run

### Selenium

1. Install with `pip install selenium` (Python 3.10 or later) and let Selenium Manager fetch drivers. Do not set driver paths
2. Use `WebDriverWait` with expected conditions, never fixed sleeps, and do not mix implicit and explicit waits
3. Set `SE_AVOID_STATS=true` to stop Selenium Manager sending usage statistics
4. Point coding agents at https://www.selenium.dev/llms.txt. Most Selenium 2 and 3 era examples use removed APIs
5. Set `--username` and `--password` before exposing a Grid beyond localhost. Check `http://localhost:4444/status` before creating sessions

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Browser Use or Selenium?

Browser Use scores 77.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Selenium's 73.6 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Selenium leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Browser Use and Selenium without installing anything?

Browser Use has a hosted endpoint at https://api.browser-use.com/api/v4. No hosted endpoint is listed for Selenium.

### Are Browser Use and Selenium open source?

Yes. Browser Use is open source (MIT for the open-source library and the SDK. Browser Use Cloud is a proprietary service under Browser Use's terms of service). Selenium is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-selenium.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "browser-use", "b": "selenium"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare browser-use selenium`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browser-use.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/selenium.json

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