Steel is a cloud browser API that handles browser automation for AI agents and applications end to end, covering everything from session startup to residential proxies and CAPTCHA avoidance. Through its REST API you can run scraping, capture screenshots, fill in forms, and resume work after logging in, and developers can reuse their existing Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium code almost as is. Since its public release in November 2024, the project has kept expanding its reach: the major “Launch Week v3” update added “Stealth Browser,” a custom Chromium fork tuned for agents, along with dedicated IP support and Rust and Go SDKs, and the payments platform Stripe adopted Steel as the browser infrastructure behind “Stripe Projects.”
Key Features
- Fast session startup and anti-bot capabilities: Sessions start in under one second on average within the same region. Residential proxy rotation and automatic CAPTCHA solving come built in, and you can also configure browser fingerprinting
- Stealth Browser: A custom Chromium fork added in Launch Week v3 and tuned for AI agent browsing. It gives you a browser with enhanced stealth characteristics
- Rich SDKs and compatibility with existing tools: SDKs are available for Python, Node.js, Go, and Rust, and compatibility with Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium makes it easy to migrate existing automation code
- MCP server support: An official MCP server (steel-mcp-server) lets coding agents such as Claude, Cursor, and Codex call browser actions like taking screenshots and filling in forms directly
- Session replay, diagnostics, and self-hosting: Session recording and replay make it easier to trace automation failures, and saved cookies and local storage let you pick up where you left off after logging in. Because the project is open source (Apache 2.0), you can also choose to self-host with Docker
Pricing
| Plan | Base Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | $0/month (initial $30 credit, valid for 90 days) | 10 concurrent sessions, 15-minute max session length, browser time from $0.10/hour |
| Scale | $250/month (includes $100 monthly credit) | 100 concurrent sessions, 1-hour max session length, browser time from $0.08/hour, dedicated IP available for $5/month |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | 1,000+ concurrent sessions, 24-hour max session length, dedicated Slack support |
On top of the above, usage-based charges apply for proxy bandwidth (Launch $10/GB, Scale $6/GB), CAPTCHA solving (Launch $3 per 1,000, Scale $1 per 1,000), and browser tool calls ($5 per 1,000 on all plans).
Pricing information is current as of August 2026. Please check the official site for the latest pricing and free tier details.
Pros and Cons
✅ Pros
- Sessions start in under one second on average, and residential proxies and CAPTCHA avoidance are built in by default
- SDKs for Python, Node.js, Go, and Rust plus compatibility with Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium make migrating existing code straightforward
- Open source (Apache 2.0) with a choice between self-hosting and cloud usage, which helps you avoid vendor lock-in
- An MCP server lets coding agents such as Claude, Cursor, and Codex invoke browser actions directly
- Fast development pace, with Launch Week v3 shipping a batch of new features at once, including Stealth Browser and the Rust/Go SDKs
⚠️ Cons
- The free tier is limited to the initial $30 credit (valid for 90 days); after that it is entirely usage-based, so you need to estimate your consumption
- The Launch plan is tightly constrained at 10 concurrent sessions and a 15-minute max session length, so production use will likely require upgrading to Scale or above
- Browser time, proxy bandwidth, and CAPTCHA solving are each billed separately by usage, so large-scale scraping calls for careful cost management
Comparison with Similar Services
| Criteria | Steel | Browserbase | Hyperbrowser | Browser Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider | Steel | Browserbase | Hyperbrowser | Browser Use |
| OSS / self-hosting | Open source (Apache 2.0), self-hostable | Proprietary, managed only | Proprietary, managed only | Agent portion is OSS, cloud version offered separately |
| Supported SDKs | Python/Node.js/Go/Rust | Node.js/Python | Node.js/Python | Primarily Python |
| Pricing model | Monthly + usage (browser time, bandwidth, CAPTCHA) | Monthly + usage | Credit-based (monthly plans available) | Usage-based (browser time, plus token billing for the agent) |
Who Should Use It
- Developers who want to run AI agents that involve web scraping or browser automation in production
- Teams that would rather not manage Playwright/Puppeteer infrastructure, proxies, and CAPTCHA handling themselves
- Open-source-minded teams that want to keep self-hosting on the table alongside cloud usage
- Developers who want to call browser actions via MCP from coding agents such as Claude, Cursor, and Codex
Summary
Steel is a cloud browser API that takes on browser automation for AI agents and applications as a whole, including session management, proxies, and CAPTCHA avoidance. Its strengths are the flexibility of being open source with a self-hosting option, and the fast pace at which it keeps adding developer-oriented extensions such as the Rust/Go SDKs and the MCP server. Since the free tier consists only of an initial credit and usage-based billing is the norm afterward, it is wise to estimate your expected usage before choosing a plan.