Browser automation and cloud browsers APIs and MCP servers for AI agents
Drive a real or remote headless browser (clicks, forms, logins, sessions) and capture screenshots or PDFs of pages.
7 browser automation and cloud browsers APIs an AI agent can call: auth method and header, official MCP server (7), free tier (5), docs links. Machine-readable JSON included. Agents: fetch catalog/browser-automation.json instead of parsing this page. Last checked 2026-11-03.
Ratings and usage (★) fetched: .
| Service | What an agent can do | Auth | MCP server | Free tier | Details (with sources) | Notes | Proof (ratings, usage) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor Browser | Provision authenticated cloud browser sessions and turn any website into callable MCP tools for agents. | API keyanchor-api-key header | official | $5 free credits/mo, no card required | Base URL: https://api.anchorbrowser.io Free plan: $5 free credits, per month, no card ↗ Rate limits: Free plan: session creation capped at 5/min, up to 5 concurrent browsers ↗ Example call: start a cloud browser session: POST https://api.anchorbrowser.io/v1/sessions ↗ Unit price: $0.01 per browser created + $0.05 per browser hour; Anchor proxy $8/GB ↗ | Authenticated (logged-in) browser sessions require a paid tier; free tier covers unauthenticated browsing only. | |
| Browser Use Cloud API | Launch cloud browser sessions and run AI browser-automation agent tasks via REST API or Python/TypeScript SDK. | API keyX-Browser-Use-API-Key header (key prefix bu_) | official | $15 one-time signup credit for new accounts (Google/GitHub/Microsoft); paid usage afterward | Base URL: https://api.browser-use.com/api/v4 Free plan: $15 signup credits (Google/GitHub/Microsoft signups), one-time, no card ↗ Rate limits: Per-project default max(25, 2x concurrency) req/s, capped at 100 RPS; edge WAF 1000 RPS per IP ↗ Async jobs: tasks run asynchronously; poll the run/session status until complete ↗ Example call: run an AI browser task: POST https://api.browser-use.com/api/v4/runs ↗ Unit price: Agent run: model token cost + 20% service fee (e.g. Claude Sonnet 5 $2.40 in / $12.00 out per 1M tokens); cloud browser $0.02/hour ↗ MCP tools: 7: run_session, get_session, send_task, stop_session, get_session_messages, list_sessions … ↗ | Pay-as-you-go: model cost + 20% and browsers at $0.02/hour, no per-run fees; no ongoing free tier beyond the signup credit. | |
| Browserbase (+ Stagehand) | Run and control cloud headless browsers programmatically, with Stagehand adding natural-language page actions. | API keyX-BB-API-Key header, plus Project ID | official | Free tier: 1 browser hour/month, 3 concurrent browsers, 15 min/session, no card required | Base URL: https://api.browserbase.com/v1 Free plan: 1 browser hour, 3 concurrent browsers, 15 min/session, per month ↗ Rate limits: Free plan: 3 concurrent browsers, 15 minutes per session ↗ Data policy: Free plan data retention limited to 7 days ↗ Example call: create a cloud browser session: POST https://api.browserbase.com/v1/sessions ↗ Unit price: Browser time beyond plan: $0.12 per browser hour (Developer, $20/mo incl. 100 h) or $0.10 (Startup, $99/mo incl. 500 h); proxies $12 or $10 per GB ↗ MCP tools: 6: start, end, navigate, act, observe, extract ↗ | Billed by browser-hours; Stagehand SDK is open source but needs a browser backend such as Browserbase. Hosted MCP takes the key as ?browserbaseApiKey=; the mcp-server-browserbase repo is archived since 2026-07-20. | |
| CurlShot | Lets an agent capture a public web page in a real browser as PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF (full page, device presets, dark mode, ad blocking) or record it scrolling as MP4, WebM or GIF. | API keyAuthorization: Bearer <CURLSHOT_ACCESS_KEY> (free account, no card) | official | free plan: 100 screenshots/month, no card required; paid from $19/mo (3,000 screenshots) | Base URL: https://curlshot.com/api/v1 Free plan: 100 screenshots, per month, no card ↗ Rate limits: Free: 10 requests/min, 1 render at once; Starter ($19): 60/min, 5 at once ↗ Example call: screenshot a web page: GET https://curlshot.com/api/v1/screenshot?url={url} ↗ Unit price: 1 screenshot of quota per successful render (failures and cache hits free); Starter $19/mo for 3,000 ↗ MCP tools: 2: take_screenshot, list_devices ↗ | list_devices on the MCP server needs no key. | — |
| Hyperbrowser | Spin up cloud browsers and call scrape, crawl, and structured-extract endpoints via REST API or MCP server. | API keyx-api-key header | official | Free: Free plan with 5,000 credits (1 credit = $0.001), 1 concurrent browser, 7-day data retention; no credit card required | Base URL: https://api.hyperbrowser.ai Free plan: 5,000 credits, 1 concurrent browser, 7-day data retention, no card ↗ Example call: create a cloud browser session: POST https://api.hyperbrowser.ai/api/session ↗ MCP tools: 10: scrape_webpage, crawl_webpages, extract_structured_data, search_with_bing, browser_use_agent, openai_computer_use_agent … ↗ | SDKs are compatible with Playwright, Puppeteer, and Selenium. | |
| Playwright MCP (Microsoft) | Official Microsoft MCP server giving agents structured browser control (click, type, navigate) via Playwright's accessibility tree. | noneno auth; runs as a local process via npx | official | free, open source, no key | Free plan: no_key, no card ↗ MCP tools: 18: browser_navigate, browser_navigate_back, browser_click, browser_type, browser_press_key, browser_hover … ↗ | Runs locally/self-hosted via `npx @playwright/mcp`; no cloud hosting, account, or API key required, but needs a local or self-managed browser runtime. Apache-2.0 licensed. | |
| Steel | Create managed cloud browser sessions with stealth proxies and CAPTCHA solving, controllable via REST API or Playwright/Puppeteer. | API keysteel-api-key header | official | Trial: Launch plan is $0 + usage with $30 one-time usage credits valid 90 days (10 concurrent sessions, 60 requests/min); no Hobby plan | Base URL: https://api.steel.dev Free plan: $30 usage credits (Launch plan, valid 90 days), one-time, no card ↗ Rate limits: Launch plan: 60 requests/min, 10 concurrent sessions, 15 min max session ↗ Data policy: Launch plan: 7 days data retention ↗ Example call: create a cloud browser session: POST https://api.steel.dev/v1/sessions ↗ Unit price: Browser hours: $0.10/hour on Launch plan (CAPTCHA solves $3 per 1,000, proxy $10/GB) ↗ MCP tools: 16: steel_scrape, steel_screenshot, steel_pdf, steel_session_create, steel_session_release, steel_navigate … ↗ | Open-source self-hostable browser engine (steel-browser) also available; official MCP server at steel-dev/steel-mcp-server. |
Other categories
- Web search
- Web scraping and crawling
- Knowledge and research data
- Image generation and editing
- Video generation and editing
- Speech and audio
- Music generation
- 3D generation and assets
- Architecture, CAD and BIM
- Diagrams and software architecture
- Design and UI
- Documents, OCR and presentations
- Translation and language
- Code execution sandboxes
- Developer platforms and DevOps
- Cloud and hosting
- Databases
- Vector search, memory and RAG
- Email, team chat and notifications
- SMS and messaging apps
- Voice agents and telephony
- Productivity and workspace
- CRM, support and marketing
- Social media
- Maps, geolocation and weather
- Finance, payments and market data
- E-commerce
- Automation and integration platforms
- Model APIs and inference