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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Notte vs Steel

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Notte doesn't.

NotteNotte Labs Inc. · HTTP API B63.2/100#285 of 629 SteelNen Labs, Inc. · HTTP API BB70.4/100#129 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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

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

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

  • Schema & documentation, 86 against 74
  • Payments & pricing, 75 against 40

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • Runs on your own machine
  • 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

CategoryWeight this runNotteSteelEdge
Reliability16%205858even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27486Steel +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.27579Steel +4
Security & auth14%17.55656even
Payments & pricing10%12.54075Steel +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88382Notte +1
Transparency & trust7%8.86164Steel +3
Negative events≤1500
Total63.2 · B70.4 · BB

Facts side by side

FactNotteSteel
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorNotte Labs Inc.Nen Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.notte.cchttps://api.steel.dev
TransportsHTTPHTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402noyes, from $0.01/call
LicenceProprietary hosted service under Notte's terms of service. The core repository is SSPL-1.0 and the Node SDK is MITProprietary 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 exposed8none
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-072026-10-02
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2025-02-05
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be read2026-02-05
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readyes
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readyes
Popularity1.3k npm/wk, 5.1k PyPI/wk47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk

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.

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

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

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, Notte or Steel?

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Notte's 63.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

Do Notte and Steel need an API key?

Notte 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 Notte and Steel without installing anything?

Yes. Notte has a hosted endpoint at https://api.notte.cc and Steel at https://api.steel.dev.

Are Notte and Steel open source?

No open-source release is listed for Notte. 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).

Other comparisons with Notte or Steel

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