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Head to head · Browser hosted · October 2026 research run

Browserbase vs TinyFish

Browserbase scores 76.2 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish's 67.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do browser hosted. Browserbase accepts x402. TinyFish doesn't.

BrowserbaseBrowserbase · HTTP API BB76.2/100#36 of 841 TinyFishTiny Fish, Inc. · HTTP API B67.7/100#227 of 841

Which one, for what

Browserbase BB

Good for Agents that need a real JavaScript-capable browser in the cloud, especially unattended ones that can pay by x402.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 60
  • Payments & pricing, 90 against 55
  • Maintenance & community, 92 against 80
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 59

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account

Watch for

The hosted MCP setup page passes the API key as ?browserbaseApiKey= in the URL

TinyFish B

Good for Agents that want one account for a goal-driven web agent, a raw CDP browser, and free search and fetch.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 80
  • Security & auth, 57 against 43

Watch for

The terms of 17 August 2026 allow Tiny Fish to train and improve its models on customer data. No opt-out was found in the reviewed pages

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrowserbaseTinyFishEdge
Reliability16%209060Browserbase +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28085TinyFish +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27579TinyFish +4
Security & auth14%17.54357TinyFish +14
Payments & pricing10%12.59055Browserbase +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89280Browserbase +12
Transparency & trust7%8.87159Browserbase +12
Negative events≤1500
Total76.2 · BB67.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactBrowserbaseTinyFish
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBrowserbaseTiny Fish, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.browserbase.com/v1https://agent.tinyfish.ai
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402yesno
LicenceMIT (Stagehand)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
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent
Last release2026-09-092026-10-07
Terms last updated2025-08-012026-08-17
Privacy policy last updated2024-06-012025-12-14
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity25k stars5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3.4/5 (8)none

Verdicts

Browserbase

x402 sessions at x402.browserbase.com with no account, $0.12 an hour, unused minutes refunded. The hosted MCP setup page passes the API key as ?browserbaseApiKey= in the URL.

TinyFish

OpenAPI documents are published for five APIs, errors carry typed codes and request IDs, and Search and Fetch are free within daily allowances. The terms let Tiny Fish train its models on customer data, run creation takes no idempotency keys, and the status page shows an hour or more of downtime on several days for the Browser and Search APIs.

Before you call either

Browserbase

  1. Use x402.browserbase.com when you have a wallet and no key. Terminate the session to get unused minutes refunded
  2. Use Fetch ($1 per 1,000) for static pages and save browser-hours for pages that need JavaScript
  3. Close sessions explicitly. Each session bills at least one minute, and idle ones keep billing
  4. Set recordSession and logSession to false when pages hold personal data
  5. On 429, wait retry-after seconds before creating another session

TinyFish

  1. Check result as well as status. A run can be COMPLETED while the goal failed, with result.status set to failure
  2. Don't retry POST /v1/automation/run blindly after a timeout. There are no idempotency keys, so list runs first to avoid duplicates
  3. Use /v1/automation/run-async or /run-sse when a run may need cancelling. Runs started with the synchronous endpoint can't be cancelled
  4. Allow 60 seconds for Browser session creation, connect Playwright to cdp_url (not base_url), and DELETE the session when done because billing is per minute
  5. Never put passwords in goal, which is logged. Pass use_vault: true with credential_item_ids, or use_profile: true for saved login state

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Browserbase or TinyFish?

Browserbase scores 76.2 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish's 67.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

Do Browserbase and TinyFish need an API key?

Browserbase needs an API key. TinyFish takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Browserbase per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Browserbase and TinyFish without installing anything?

Yes. Browserbase has a hosted endpoint at https://api.browserbase.com/v1 and TinyFish at https://agent.tinyfish.ai.

Other comparisons with Browserbase or TinyFish

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