Agentifact assessment — independently scored, not sponsored. Last verified Mar 6, 2026.
Steel
Steel is an open-source browser API built specifically for AI agents and apps, making it easy to run browser automations in the cloud — from large-scale scraping to fully autonomous web agents. Sessions start in under one second, can run up to 24 hours, and include built-in CAPTCHA solving. Steel supports Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium and can be self-hosted or used via Steel Cloud. The free tier includes 100 browser hours/month; paid plans scale up to 50 concurrent sessions at $499/mo.
Viable option — review the tradeoffs
You need reliable cloud browsers for AI agents to automate web tasks without building infra, dodging bot detection, or waiting minutes for sessions.
Sessions reliable up to 24h, scales to 50 concurrent on paid tiers; free 100h/mo solid for prototyping but watch quotas.
Your scraping or agent jobs fail from CAPTCHAs, IP bans, or fingerprinting — you want production-ready evasion without custom hacks.
High success rates on tough sites; quirks like proxy config needed for geo-specific tasks; live debug viewer is a game-changer.
You're tired of local browser farms or unreliable hosted options — you want open-source control with cloud scale.
Self-hosting needs decent infra (Fly.io example scales well); cloud free tier generous but caps at 100h — upgrade for heavy use.
Free tier quota burnout
100 browser hours/mo exhausts fast on concurrent agents; sessions auto-kill after quota — monitor usage or upgrade to avoid mid-run halts.
Steel wins on AI-agent focus with CAPTCHA/stealth baked in; Browserless more general-purpose.
Pick Steel for autonomous agents needing evasion and live debugging.
Pick Browserless for simple, high-volume headless rendering without agent smarts.
Trust Breakdown
What It Actually Does
Steel lets you run automated browser tasks in the cloud for your AI agents, handling everything from web scraping to filling forms with built-in CAPTCHA solving and fast startup times.
Steel is an open-source browser API built specifically for AI agents and apps, making it easy to run browser automations in the cloud — from large-scale scraping to fully autonomous web agents. Sessions start in under one second, can run up to 24 hours, and include built-in CAPTCHA solving. Steel supports Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium and can be self-hosted or used via Steel Cloud.
The free tier includes 100 browser hours/month; paid plans scale up to 50 concurrent sessions at $499/mo.
Fit Assessment
Best for
- ✓browser-automation
- ✓captcha-solving
- ✓proxy-usage
Not ideal for
- ✗session timeout after plan-specific duration (15min-24hr)
- ✗daily request limit of 500 on Hobby plan
- ✗rate limits from 1-10 requests per second by plan
Known Failure Modes
- session timeout after plan-specific duration (15min-24hr)
- daily request limit of 500 on Hobby plan
- rate limits from 1-10 requests per second by plan
Score Breakdown
Protocol Support
Capabilities
Governance
- resource-limits