# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-hyperbrowser
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-hyperbrowser.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-hyperbrowser.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-hyperbrowser.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: 2026-10-08

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.

- Browserless: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #128 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json
- Hyperbrowser: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #205 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hyperbrowser.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hyperbrowser.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Browserless | Hyperbrowser | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 65 | Browserless +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 68 | Browserless +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 67 | Browserless +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 44 | Browserless +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 94 | Hyperbrowser +54 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 79 | Browserless +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 64 | Hyperbrowser +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **66.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browserless | Hyperbrowser |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | browserless.io, Inc. | S2 Labs Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` | `https://api.hyperbrowser.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes |
| Licence | SSPL 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 proprietary | Proprietary 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 exposed | 14 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk | 89k 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.


## For agents

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

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