# Browserless vs Steel

> Browserless and Steel score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 70.4 (BB) and 70.4 (BB). Steel leads on payments & pricing. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Browserless doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-steel
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-steel.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-steel.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-steel.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 and Steel score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 70.4 (BB) and 70.4 (BB). Steel leads on payments & pricing. Both do browser automation. Steel 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
- Steel: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #129 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/steel.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

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

### Steel (BB)

Good for: Agents that need a real cloud browser with persistent profiles, stored logins, CAPTCHA solving and a human takeover path, and teams that want an open-source runtime they can also self-host.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 75 against 40

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- Open source

Watch for: Three incidents of more than an hour hit the API or session creation in the 90 days to 8 October 2026, the longest 5 hours 41 minutes


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Browserless | Steel | 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 | 86 | Browserless +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 79 | Steel +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 56 | Steel +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 75 | Steel +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 82 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 64 | Steel +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **70.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browserless | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | browserless.io, Inc. | Nen Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` | `https://api.steel.dev` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| 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 cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 14 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-02-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-02-05 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk | 47k npm/wk, 63k 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.

**Steel.** The hosted API has a public OpenAPI document, per-unit prices, $30 of starting credit and x402 payment for scrape, screenshot and PDF calls. The status page records three API or session-creation incidents of more than an hour in 90 days, and the documented CDP connection puts the API key in the URL.

## 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()`

### Steel

1. Use `POST /v1/scrape` for pages you only need to read. It starts no session and costs $5 per 1,000 calls, or $0.01 a call by x402
2. Release every session with `POST /v1/sessions/{id}/release` and set `inactivityTimeout`. Browser time bills by the minute, rounded up
3. Build the CDP URL as `wss://connect.steel.dev?apiKey=<key>&sessionId=<id>` and keep it out of logs, because it carries the key
4. Launch sessions end after 15 minutes at most, and `timeout` cannot be changed on a live session
5. CAPTCHA solving and Steel's managed proxies on Launch need $10 of paid balance. Free credit does not count

## Questions

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

Browserless and Steel score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 70.4 (BB) and 70.4 (BB). Steel leads on payments & pricing.

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

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

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

Yes. Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io and Steel at https://api.steel.dev.

### Are Browserless and Steel open source?

No open-source release is listed for Browserless. Steel is open source (Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Browserless or Steel

- [Airtop vs Browserless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-browserless.md)
- [Airtop vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtop-vs-steel.md)
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- [Anchor Browser vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-browser-vs-steel.md)
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- [Browserless vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
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- [Playwright MCP vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playwright-mcp-vs-steel.md)
- [Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-reference-server-archived-vs-steel.md)
- [Skyvern vs Steel](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/skyvern-vs-steel.md)
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