# Browserless vs Puppeteer

> Puppeteer and Browserless score within a point of each other for browser automation, 70.6 and 70.4 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-puppeteer
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-puppeteer.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-puppeteer.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-puppeteer.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

Puppeteer and Browserless score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 70.6 (BB) and 70.4 (BB). Browserless leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do browser automation.

- Browserless: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #158 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json
- Puppeteer: grade BB, 70.6/100, rank #154 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/puppeteer.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

### 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:
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 81
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 67

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

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

### Puppeteer (BB)

Good for: Agents that write and run Node.js scripts against Chrome or Firefox.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 89 against 82
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 62

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

Watch for: No MCP server, CLI or llms.txt of its own. The docs point agents to the separate chrome-devtools-mcp project


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Browserless | Puppeteer | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 80 | Browserless +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 81 | Browserless +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 67 | Browserless +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 52 | Browserless +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Puppeteer +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 89 | Puppeteer +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 70 | Puppeteer +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **70.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browserless | Puppeteer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | browserless.io, Inc. | Google |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 14 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk | 96k stars, 11.5M npm/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.

**Puppeteer.** Puppeteer is a stable, Apache-2.0 library on 25.13.0, with ten releases since 27 July 2026, typed APIs, locators that wait and retry, and accessibility snapshots an agent can read. It has no MCP server or llms.txt of its own, and 10 of the 20 most recent CI runs on main failed between 7 and 13 October 2026.

## 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()`

### Puppeteer

1. Install with `npm i puppeteer`, which downloads a matching Chrome for Testing. Use `puppeteer-core` to bring your own browser
2. Prefer `page.locator()` over `page.$()`. Locators wait for the element to be visible and stable before acting
3. Read pages with `page.accessibility.snapshot({interestingOnly: true})` rather than full HTML to keep output short
4. Catch `TimeoutError` separately from `TargetCloseError`. The first can be retried, the second needs a new page or browser
5. Packages are ESM only since 25.0.0. Use `import puppeteer from 'puppeteer'` rather than `require`

## Questions

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

Puppeteer and Browserless score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 70.6 (BB) and 70.4 (BB). Browserless leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

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

Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io. No hosted endpoint is listed for Puppeteer.

### Are Browserless and Puppeteer open source?

No open-source release is listed for Browserless. Puppeteer is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Browserless or Puppeteer

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