# Pomerado vs Steel

> Steel scores 70.4 (BB) to Pomerado's 62.6 (B) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pomerado-vs-steel
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pomerado-vs-steel.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pomerado-vs-steel.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pomerado-vs-steel.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 required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

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.

- Pomerado: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #468 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pomerado.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pomerado.json
- Steel: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #166 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/steel.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 136 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Pomerado (B)

Good 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)

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:
- 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

| Category | Weight | Pomerado | Steel | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 58 | Steel +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 86 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 79 | Pomerado +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 69 | 56 | Pomerado +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 42 | 75 | Steel +33 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 82 | Steel +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 64 | Steel +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.6 · B** | **70.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pomerado | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Pomerado AI, Inc. | Nen Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.pomerado.ai/mcp` | `https://api.steel.dev` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Licence | 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 | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 14 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.pomerado/pomerado` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2025-02-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2026-02-05 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 37k npm/wk | 47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (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).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Pomerado or Steel

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

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp