# Hyperbrowser vs Selenium

> Selenium scores 73.6 (BB) to Hyperbrowser's 66.9 (B) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-14

Selenium scores 73.6 (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. Selenium doesn't.

- Hyperbrowser: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #284 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hyperbrowser.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hyperbrowser.json
- Selenium: grade BB, 73.6/100, rank #90 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/selenium.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/selenium.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

### 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 60

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

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

### Selenium (BB)

Good for: Agents that write test or automation scripts in any of five languages, and teams with a Grid.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 65
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 94 against 79
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 64

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No MCP server from the project. The docs point to community servers and say they are third-party


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hyperbrowser | Selenium | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 90 | Selenium +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 89 | Selenium +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 70 | Selenium +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 43 | Hyperbrowser +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 94 | 60 | Hyperbrowser +34 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 94 | Selenium +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 74 | Selenium +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.9 · B** | **73.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hyperbrowser | Selenium |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | S2 Labs Inc. | Selenium project (Software Freedom Conservancy) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.hyperbrowser.ai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | yes | no |
| Licence | 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Popularity | 89k npm/wk, 73k PyPI/wk | 35k stars, 1.8M npm/wk, 6.9M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Selenium.** Selenium is stable, Apache-2.0 software on 4.51.0 with bindings in five languages, CI passing on trunk, an llms.txt and an agent guide added in September 2026. It has no MCP server of its own, Selenium Manager sends usage statistics by default, and Grid accepts unauthenticated sessions unless a username and password are set.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Selenium

1. Install with `pip install selenium` (Python 3.10 or later) and let Selenium Manager fetch drivers. Do not set driver paths
2. Use `WebDriverWait` with expected conditions, never fixed sleeps, and do not mix implicit and explicit waits
3. Set `SE_AVOID_STATS=true` to stop Selenium Manager sending usage statistics
4. Point coding agents at https://www.selenium.dev/llms.txt. Most Selenium 2 and 3 era examples use removed APIs
5. Set `--username` and `--password` before exposing a Grid beyond localhost. Check `http://localhost:4444/status` before creating sessions

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hyperbrowser or Selenium?

Selenium scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Hyperbrowser's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Hyperbrowser leads on payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call Hyperbrowser and Selenium without installing anything?

Hyperbrowser has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hyperbrowser.ai. No hosted endpoint is listed for Selenium.

### Are Hyperbrowser and Selenium open source?

No open-source release is listed for Hyperbrowser. Selenium is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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