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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Notte vs Playwright MCP

Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation.

NotteNotte Labs Inc. · HTTP API B63.2/100#285 of 629 Playwright MCPMicrosoft · MCP server B67.6/100#189 of 629

Which one, for what

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.

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

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

Playwright MCP B

Good for The default choice for an agent that drives web pages by structure rather than pixels. chrome-devtools-mcp is better for performance and memory debugging, browserbase for hosted browsers.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 84 against 75
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 72 against 61

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

browser_run_code_unsafe runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runNottePlaywright MCPEdge
Reliability16%205857Notte +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27470Notte +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.27584Playwright MCP +9
Security & auth14%17.55657Playwright MCP +1
Payments & pricing10%12.54060Playwright MCP +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88384Playwright MCP +1
Transparency & trust7%8.86172Playwright MCP +11
Negative events≤1500
Total63.2 · B67.6 · B

Facts side by side

FactNottePlaywright MCP
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorNotte Labs Inc.Microsoft
Hosted endpointhttps://api.notte.ccno (local only)
TransportsHTTPstdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service under Notte's terms of service. The core repository is SSPL-1.0 and the Node SDK is MITApache-2.0
Tools exposed872
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listedio.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp
Last release2026-10-072026-09-28
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readno document linked
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity1.3k npm/wk, 5.1k PyPI/wk37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Playwright MCP

Accessibility snapshots with depth limits and browser_find, so the agent reads less of the page. browser_run_code_unsafe runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off.

Before you call either

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

Playwright MCP

  1. Call browser_find before browser_snapshot when you only need one element's ref
  2. Pass depth or a target to browser_snapshot on large pages
  3. Run with --isolated for untrusted sites. The default profile persists cookies between runs
  4. Add --caps only for the groups the task needs. Each group adds tools to the schema
  5. Pin a version in npx @playwright/mcp@<version>. 0.0.x releases can rename tools

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Notte or Playwright MCP?

Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Notte and Playwright MCP need an API key?

Notte takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Playwright MCP needs no key.

Can an agent call Notte and Playwright MCP without installing anything?

Notte has a hosted endpoint at https://api.notte.cc. Playwright MCP runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Are Notte and Playwright MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for Notte. Playwright MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Notte or Playwright MCP

Machine-readable

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