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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Pomerado vs Steel

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Pomerado's 62.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Pomerado leads on security & auth. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Pomerado doesn't.

Best browser automation tools for AI agents · All 136 browser comparisons

PomeradoPomerado AI, Inc. · MCP server B62.6/100#468 of 1133 SteelNen Labs, Inc. · HTTP API BB70.4/100#166 of 1133

Which one, for what

Pomerado B

Best for An agent that repeats the same task on consumer sites or portals, such as flight searches, carts or order history, and wants a typed call instead of driving a browser.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 69 against 56

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5

Watch for

First released on 5 October 2026, with a team of two per its YC profile

Steel BB

Best 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

  • Reliability, 58 against 40
  • Payments & pricing, 75 against 42
  • Transparency & trust, 64 against 54

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

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 runPomeradoSteelEdge
Reliability16%204058Steel +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28686even
Agent ergonomics13%16.28379Pomerado +4
Security & auth14%17.56956Pomerado +13
Payments & pricing10%12.54275Steel +33
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88182Steel +1
Transparency & trust7%8.85464Steel +10
Negative events≤15-20
TotalB 62.6/100BB 70.4/100

Facts side by side

FactPomeradoSteel
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorPomerado AI, Inc.Nen Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.pomerado.ai/mcphttps://api.steel.dev
TransportsHTTPHTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402noyes, from $0.01/call
LicencePomerado Cloud is a proprietary service under Pomerado's terms of service. The minting core in Pomerado/pomerado and the pomerado npm package are MIT from version 0.2.0, and versions 0.1.2 and earlier were AGPL-3.0-onlyProprietary 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 exposed14none
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryai.pomerado/pomeradonot listed
Last release2026-10-172026-10-02
Terms last updated2025-02-05
Privacy policy last updated2026-02-05
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity37k npm/wk47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (4)2/5 (4)

Verdicts

Pomerado

An agent can find and run 46 public read-only website tools with no account, and signed-in calls get scoped, expiring keys, idempotency keys and a documented code for every failure. Pomerado is 12 days old, with no status page or security.txt, and its homepage lists bank and government portals that its builds refuse.

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

Pomerado

  1. Try public read-only tools at https://mcp.pomerado.ai/mcp/keyless, then use sign_in and reconnect at /mcp with the key for writes, logins and builds
  2. Call find_website_tool with a query and site_url, and check possible_matches before starting a build
  3. Send an idempotency_key with every run that writes, and on outcome_unknown read the website back before calling again
  4. Give the person the job's answer_url for website logins and codes. Don't take passwords in chat
  5. Save a run's result when it arrives. It is returned once and erased after 60 minutes if unread

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, Pomerado or Steel?

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Pomerado's 62.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Pomerado leads on security & auth.

Do Pomerado and Steel need an API key?

Pomerado 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 Pomerado and Steel without installing anything?

Yes. Pomerado has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.pomerado.ai/mcp and Steel at https://api.steel.dev.

Are Pomerado and Steel open source?

Yes. Pomerado is open source (Pomerado Cloud is a proprietary service under Pomerado's terms of service. The minting core in Pomerado/pomerado and the `pomerado` npm package are MIT from version 0.2.0, and versions 0.1.2 and earlier were AGPL-3.0-only). 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).

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