# Steel vs TinyFish

> Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish's 67.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. TinyFish doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/steel-vs-tinyfish
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/steel-vs-tinyfish.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/steel-vs-tinyfish.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/steel-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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish's 67.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. TinyFish doesn't.

- Steel: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #149 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/steel.json
- TinyFish: grade B, 67.7/100, rank #227 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish.json

## Which one, for what

### 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:
- Payments & pricing, 75 against 55
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 59

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

### TinyFish (B)

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

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 | Steel | TinyFish | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 60 | TinyFish +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 85 | Steel +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 79 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 57 | TinyFish +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 75 | 55 | Steel +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 80 | Steel +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 59 | Steel +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **67.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Steel | TinyFish |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nen Labs, Inc. | Tiny Fish, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.steel.dev` | `https://agent.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $0.01/call | no |
| Licence | 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 | 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 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-02-05 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-02-05 | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk | 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Steel or TinyFish?

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish's 67.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

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

Steel needs an API key. TinyFish takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Steel per call over x402, with no account.

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

Yes. Steel has a hosted endpoint at https://api.steel.dev and TinyFish at https://agent.tinyfish.ai.

### Are Steel and TinyFish open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Steel or TinyFish

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