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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Browserless vs Hyperbrowser

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Hyperbrowser's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Hyperbrowser leads on payments & pricing. Both do browser automation. Hyperbrowser accepts x402. Browserless doesn't.

Browserlessbrowserless.io, Inc. · HTTP API BB70.4/100#114 of 578 HyperbrowserS2 Labs Inc. · HTTP API B66.9/100#183 of 578

Which one, for what

Browserless BB

Good for Agents that need a real browser in the cloud with stealth, proxies and CAPTCHA solving, and teams that want the option of running the same server themselves.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 82 against 65
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 68
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 67
  • Security & auth, 53 against 44

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

REST and WebSocket routes take the API token as ?token= in the URL, which the docs give as the standard method

Hyperbrowser B

Good for Agents that need a cloud browser by the minute plus cheap fetch and search, especially wallet-holding agents with no account.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 94 against 40

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account

Watch for

The official MCP server's last npm release is 1.0.25 of 13 April 2025, and it isn't in the official MCP registry

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrowserlessHyperbrowserEdge
Reliability16%208265Browserless +17
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28968Browserless +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.27867Browserless +11
Security & auth14%17.55344Browserless +9
Payments & pricing10%12.54094Hyperbrowser +54
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88279Browserless +3
Transparency & trust7%8.86264Hyperbrowser +2
Negative events≤1500
Total70.4 · BB66.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactBrowserlessHyperbrowser
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
Vendorbrowserless.io, Inc.S2 Labs Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://production-sfo.browserless.iohttps://api.hyperbrowser.ai
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402noyes
LicenceSSPL 1.0 or a commercial licence for the core server and the MCP server. The BAP TypeScript SDK is MIT. BrowserQL, stealth and other cloud additions are proprietaryProprietary service under S2 Labs' terms of service. The Node and Python SDKs and the MCP server are MIT, and HyperAgent is AGPL-3.0
Tools exposed14none
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-052026-10-08
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk89k npm/wk, 73k PyPI/wk

Verdicts

Browserless

An OpenAPI document, llms.txt and a 14-tool MCP server with annotations on every tool make the service easy for an agent to read, and the free plan needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string by default, cloud tokens carry no scopes, and no machine payment route exists.

Hyperbrowser

Sessions, Fetch and Search can be bought by x402 at api.hyperbrowser.ai with USDC on Base or Solana and no account, and unit prices are public. The official MCP server was last published in April 2025, no request rate limits or SLA are published, and the privacy notice covers only the website.

Before you call either

Browserless

  1. Send the token as Authorization: Bearer to the MCP server. On REST and WebSocket routes it goes in ?token=, so keep those URLs out of logs
  2. Close sessions as soon as the work is done. Browser time bills one unit per 30 seconds, rounded up, idle or not
  3. For multi-step work with browserless_agent, set keepSessionAlive: true on the first call and pass the returned sessionId after that. Sessions are one-shot by default since server 1.33.0
  4. On 429, back off and retry. It means the plan's concurrency limit or queue is full, usually from sessions left open
  5. Match the path to the protocol. Use /chromium for CDP clients and /chromium/playwright only for playwright.connect()

Hyperbrowser

  1. With a wallet and no key, POST to https://api.hyperbrowser.ai/x402/session and read the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header. Sessions are prepaid for 5 to 60 minutes with no refund
  2. Save the x402 creation response. It holds the only copy of the connection tokens, and managementToken is what stops the session
  3. Stop sessions explicitly in cleanup code. Browser time bills per second until the timeout
  4. Use Fetch at $0.001 a page for static pages and keep browser sessions for pages that need interaction
  5. Add &keepAlive=true to wsEndpoint to reconnect after a CDP disconnect. Treat that URL as a secret because it carries the session token

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Browserless or Hyperbrowser?

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Hyperbrowser's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Hyperbrowser leads on payments & pricing.

Do Browserless and Hyperbrowser need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Hyperbrowser per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Browserless and Hyperbrowser without installing anything?

Yes. Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io and Hyperbrowser at https://api.hyperbrowser.ai.

Other comparisons with Browserless or Hyperbrowser

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