# Browserless vs Notte

> Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-notte
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-notte.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-notte.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-notte.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 Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation.

- 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
- Notte: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #285 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/notte.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/notte.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 58
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 74

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine

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

### Notte (B)

Good for: Teams that want hosted browsers together with agents, vaults for logins, personas with mailboxes and scheduled browser functions behind one key.

Watch for: status.notte.cc shows the Scrape API down on 15 of 90 days (about 6 hours in total) and CAPTCHA solving at 88.9 per cent availability


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Browserless | Notte | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 58 | Browserless +24 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 74 | Browserless +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 75 | Browserless +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 56 | Notte +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 83 | Notte +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 61 | Browserless +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **63.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browserless | Notte |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | browserless.io, Inc. | Notte Labs Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` | `https://api.notte.cc` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| 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 hosted service under Notte's terms of service. The core repository is SSPL-1.0 and the Node SDK is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 14 | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-07 |
| 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 | 1.3k npm/wk, 5.1k 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.

**Notte.** Notte publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 contract for 100 operations, a hosted MCP server with eight tools and OAuth, and a free plan with $10 of credits and no card. Its status page records about six hours of Scrape API downtime in 90 days, and a bot check blocked our read of the terms and privacy policy.

## 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()`

### Notte

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer $NOTTE_API_KEY` to https://api.notte.cc. A person creates the key in the console at console.notte.cc first
2. Stop every session when the task ends. Sessions close after 3 idle minutes or 15 minutes in total by default, and the Free plan caps a session at 15 minutes
3. Use https://api.notte.cc/mcp for browser work. Function and agent administration tools are only on https://api.notte.cc/mcp/full
4. Back off on 429 and on 529, which means the cluster has too many sessions. The SDKs do not retry rate limits for you
5. Download session replays within 24 hours. The recordings page says they are deleted after that

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Browserless or Notte?

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Browserless and Notte need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Browserless and Notte without installing anything?

Yes. Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io and Notte at https://api.notte.cc.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Browserless or Notte

- [Airtop vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless.md)
- [Airtop vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-notte.md)
- [Anchor Browser vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-browser-vs-browserless.md)
- [Anchor Browser vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-browser-vs-notte.md)
- [Browser Use vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-browserless.md)
- [Browser Use vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser-use-vs-notte.md)
- [Browserless vs Chrome DevTools MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-chrome-devtools-mcp.md)
- [Browserless vs Hyperbrowser](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-hyperbrowser.md)
- [Browserless vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [Browserless vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
- [Browserless vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-skyvern.md)
- [Browserless vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-steel.md)
- [Chrome DevTools MCP vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chrome-devtools-mcp-vs-notte.md)
- [Hyperbrowser vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperbrowser-vs-notte.md)
- [Notte vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notte-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [Notte vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notte-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
- [Notte vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notte-vs-skyvern.md)
- [Notte vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notte-vs-steel.md)
- [Browserbase vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-browserless.md)
- [Browserbase vs Notte](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-notte.md)