# Lightpanda vs TinyFish

> TinyFish scores 67.7 (B) to Lightpanda's 61.6 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lightpanda-vs-tinyfish
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lightpanda-vs-tinyfish.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lightpanda-vs-tinyfish.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lightpanda-vs-tinyfish.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

TinyFish scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Lightpanda's 61.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lightpanda leads on reliability and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- Lightpanda: grade C, 61.6/100, rank #542 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lightpanda.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lightpanda.json
- TinyFish: grade B, 67.7/100, rank #278 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 171 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Lightpanda (C)

Good for: Agents and crawlers that read and fill many JavaScript pages in parallel on small machines, without needing pixel rendering.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 59

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: Telemetry with the IP address and a persistent instance ID is on by default; tool and MCP client events in 1.0.2 aren't in the privacy policy's list

### TinyFish (B)

Good for: Agents that want one account for a goal-driven web agent, a raw CDP browser, and free search and fetch.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 57 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 73

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The terms of 17 August 2026 allow Tiny Fish to train and improve its models on customer data. No opt-out was found in the reviewed pages


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Lightpanda | TinyFish | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 60 | Lightpanda +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 85 | TinyFish +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 79 | TinyFish +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 57 | TinyFish +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 55 | TinyFish +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 80 | TinyFish +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 59 | Lightpanda +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.6 · C** | **67.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lightpanda | TinyFish |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Selecy SAS (Lightpanda) | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://agent.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 for the browser. The npm wrapper @lightpanda/browser and the agent skill are Apache-2.0. Lightpanda Cloud is a closed service with no terms of service found | Proprietary service under Tiny Fish's terms of service. The MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` and the cookbook are MIT. The SDK packages state no licence in npm or PyPI metadata |
| Tools exposed | 32 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-03 | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 9.3k npm/wk | 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Lightpanda.** Version 1.0.2 runs locally with no account, and its 32-tool MCP server has typed schemas, an annotation on every tool and guidance to treat pages as untrusted. Telemetry is on by default, the CDP and HTTP MCP servers have no authentication, the cloud documents its token in the URL, and no status page or cloud terms were found.

**TinyFish.** OpenAPI documents are published for five APIs, errors carry typed codes and request IDs, and Search and Fetch are free within daily allowances. The terms let Tiny Fish train its models on customer data, run creation takes no idempotency keys, and the status page shows an hour or more of downtime on several days for the Browser and Search APIs.

## Before you call either

### Lightpanda

1. Set `LIGHTPANDA_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true` in the server's environment if usage data, the IP address and an instance ID shouldn't leave the machine.
2. Treat text from `markdown`, `html`, `tree` and `links` as untrusted page content, never as instructions.
3. Pass credentials as `$LP_*` placeholders in tool arguments and call `getEnv` without a name; naming a variable returns its value.
4. Check `httpStatus` in `structuredContent` after `goto`, since a 404 page or a load timeout is still reported as a successful navigation.
5. Keep `lightpanda serve` and `lightpanda mcp --port` on 127.0.0.1 or a Unix socket; neither checks who connects.

### TinyFish

1. Check `result` as well as `status`. A run can be `COMPLETED` while the goal failed, with `result.status` set to `failure`
2. Don't retry `POST /v1/automation/run` blindly after a timeout. There are no idempotency keys, so list runs first to avoid duplicates
3. Use `/v1/automation/run-async` or `/run-sse` when a run may need cancelling. Runs started with the synchronous endpoint can't be cancelled
4. Allow 60 seconds for Browser session creation, connect Playwright to `cdp_url` (not `base_url`), and `DELETE` the session when done because billing is per minute
5. Never put passwords in `goal`, which is logged. Pass `use_vault: true` with `credential_item_ids`, or `use_profile: true` for saved login state

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Lightpanda or TinyFish?

TinyFish scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Lightpanda's 61.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lightpanda leads on reliability and transparency & trust.

### Do Lightpanda and TinyFish need an API key?

Lightpanda needs no key. TinyFish takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Lightpanda and TinyFish without installing anything?

Lightpanda runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. TinyFish has a hosted endpoint at https://agent.tinyfish.ai.

### Are Lightpanda and TinyFish open source?

Lightpanda is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the browser. The npm wrapper @lightpanda/browser and the agent skill are Apache-2.0. Lightpanda Cloud is a closed service with no terms of service found). No open-source release is listed for TinyFish.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Lightpanda or TinyFish

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

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