Steel
Open-source cloud browser API for AI agents: start real browser sessions in under a second, with profiles, proxies and CAPTCHA solving
Steel is browser infrastructure for AI agents: an API that starts real cloud browser sessions, built on the Apache-2.0 Steel Browser you can also self-host. Launch is $0/month plus usage with $30 of one-time credits, 10 concurrent sessions and 15-minute sessions; Scale is $250/month plus usage with $100 of monthly credits and 100 concurrent sessions. Browser hours cost $0.08 to $0.10. Best for developers who want a hosted browser fleet without lock-in.
What is Steel?
Steel is an API for running real web browsers in the cloud on behalf of AI agents and automation scripts. An agent asks for a session, gets an isolated browser in under a second, and drives it like a person would: navigating, clicking, typing, logging in, and pulling out page content as HTML, markdown, screenshots or PDFs. Sessions can carry state between runs through profiles, saved credentials, cookies and browser extensions, so an agent that signed in yesterday does not have to sign in again today. Steel also offers proxies, CAPTCHA solving and mobile-mode browsing for sites that resist automation, plus live session views, recordings and agent traces for debugging.
The core runtime, Steel Browser, is open source under the Apache-2.0 license and has about 7,800 stars on GitHub, and Steel documents self-hosting it with Docker. That makes the hosted service optional: you can start on Steel’s cloud and later run the same browser in your own infrastructure. Pricing is usage-based on top of a plan fee. Launch costs nothing a month and comes with $30 of credits once; Scale is $250 a month with $100 of monthly credits and lower unit rates, such as $0.08 instead of $0.10 per browser hour. Steel reports more than 35 million sessions served.
Who is it for?
Steel is a developer product. You write the automation, in Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium or an agent framework such as Browser Use, and Steel runs the browsers underneath. It fits teams that want to stop maintaining their own headless Chrome fleet but would rather not be locked into a closed platform. The pricing has a gap in the middle: Launch suits prototypes and low volume, but the next plan costs $250 a month, so small production workloads may come out cheaper on Browserbase’s $20 or $99 plans.
- AI agent builders who need agents to work inside web apps that have no API, with logins that persist.
- Scraping and data teams extracting content from JavaScript-heavy sites for RAG pipelines or model training.
- Automation engineers moving existing Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium suites to hosted browsers.
- Teams with data-residency rules that want the option to self-host the open-source browser.
How much does Steel cost?
Starting price: $250/mo · Free tier: yes · Model: freemium
Price history tracked from June 2026
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | $0/mo + usage | $30 of usage credits, one time · 10 concurrent browser sessions, sessions up to 15 minutes · Up to 3 seats, 60 requests per minute, 7-day data retention · Browser hours $0.10, proxy bandwidth $10/GB, CAPTCHA solves $3 per 1,000 |
| Scale | $250/mo + usage | $100 of usage credits every month · 100 concurrent browser sessions, sessions up to 1 hour · Browser hours $0.08, proxy bandwidth $6/GB, CAPTCHA solves $1 per 1,000 · Dedicated IPs at $5 each, unlimited seats, 14-day data retention · Dedicated Slack channel, enterprise SSO and a HIPAA-ready BAA |
| Enterprise | Custom | 1,000+ concurrent sessions, sessions up to 24 hours · Stealth browser and reserved browser pools · Custom rates and usage credits · Support and uptime SLAs |
What are Steel's key features?
- Sessions API that starts an isolated cloud browser in under a second
- Open-source Steel Browser runtime under Apache-2.0, self-hostable with Docker
- Works with Playwright, Puppeteer and Selenium, plus Node and Python SDKs and a CLI
- Profiles, credentials, cookies and extensions that persist browser state across runs
- Proxies, CAPTCHA solving and mobile-mode browsing for sites that resist automation
- Live session view, recordings, WebRTC streaming and agent traces for debugging
- Scrape endpoint returning page content as HTML, markdown, screenshots or PDFs
What people use Steel for
- 01 Giving an AI agent a real browser to log in, click, type and extract data from sites that have no API
- 02 Moving existing Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium scripts onto hosted cloud browsers
- 03 Scraping JavaScript-heavy pages to markdown, screenshots or PDFs for RAG and model training
- 04 Keeping logins alive across runs with saved profiles, cookies and credentials
- 05 Self-hosting a browser sandbox with Docker when data must stay in your own infrastructure
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The core browser is open source, so you can self-host it and leave the hosted service without rewriting your automation | There is no cheap middle plan: after Launch, the next rung is Scale at $250/month, against $20 and $99 entry plans at Browserbase |
| Pricing and every per-unit rate are published, from $0.08 per browser hour on Scale | The $30 of Launch credits is one time, not monthly, so ongoing use is always billed |
| Launch has no monthly fee, so a prototype only pays for the hours it uses after the free credits | Launch sessions stop at 15 minutes, and the stealth browser is reserved for Enterprise |
| Persistent profiles and credentials suit agents that must stay signed in to web apps | It is infrastructure, not an agent: you still write the automation logic and bring the model |
What are the best Steel alternatives?
Browser Use is the closest Steel alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Agents & Automation), starts at $0, has a free tier.
Ranked by category overlap with Steel, then free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never from sponsorships.
| Alternative | What it is | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser Use | Open-source library that lets AI agents control a real browser to automate and extract from any site | $0 | yes | Jul 1, 2026 |
| Browserbase | Cloud browser infrastructure for AI agents — run and scale headless browser sessions via API; maker of the open-source Stagehand framework | $20/mo | yes | Oct 11, 2026 |
| Apify | Cloud platform for web scraping and automation with a marketplace of 54,000+ ready-to-run Actors | $29/mo | yes | Jul 30, 2026 |
| Skyvern | Open-source AI agent that automates browser workflows with vision instead of brittle selectors | $29/mo | yes | Jul 5, 2026 |
| E2B | Open-source cloud sandboxes that let AI agents run untrusted code in isolated Firecracker microVMs | $150/mo | yes | Oct 18, 2026 |
How people make money with Steel
- Run managed web-automation jobs for clients (lead enrichment, price monitoring, form filling) on Steel sessions and bill a monthly retainer per workflow, with browser hours folded into the fee
- Self-host the open-source Steel Browser for clients whose compliance rules keep browsing inside their own cloud, charging a setup project plus ongoing maintenance
Frequently asked questions
Is Steel free?
Steel's Launch plan costs $0 a month and includes $30 of usage credits once, with 10 concurrent sessions and sessions up to 15 minutes. After the credits run out you pay per use, such as $0.10 per browser hour. The open-source Steel Browser can also be self-hosted for free.
How much does Steel cost?
Launch is $0 a month plus usage. Scale is $250 a month plus usage and includes $100 of credits every month, 100 concurrent sessions and lower rates: $0.08 per browser hour, $6 per GB of proxy bandwidth and $1 per 1,000 CAPTCHA solves. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Is Steel open source?
Yes. The core runtime, Steel Browser, is published on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license, and Steel documents self-hosting with Docker or a one-click Railway deploy. The hosted service adds managed scaling, proxies, CAPTCHA solving and the Enterprise stealth browser.
Does Steel work with Playwright and Puppeteer?
Yes. Steel sessions accept connections from Playwright, Puppeteer and Selenium, so existing automation scripts can run on hosted browsers. Steel also ships Node and Python SDKs, both published as steel-sdk, and a command-line tool.
How is Steel different from Browserbase?
Both rent cloud browsers to AI agents by the browser hour. Steel's core browser is open source and self-hostable, and its Launch plan has no monthly fee. Browserbase has cheaper flat plans at $20 and $99 a month, where Steel's next step after Launch is Scale at $250.
What is a browser hour on Steel?
A browser hour is one browser session running for one hour, and it is Steel's main billing unit. It costs $0.10 on Launch and $0.08 on Scale. Proxy bandwidth, CAPTCHA solves and scrape calls are billed separately at their own published rates.