Steel.dev alternatives · prices as of Sep 2026
Steel.dev alternatives, compared on what you actually pay
Steel is a good, cheap browser API for teams that write their own automation. Here is what the other options cost today, and where an agent API like ours fits.
$0.10 per browser-hour, billed per second, plus $0.02 per agent step with the AI included. No subscription. First top-up can be $1.
Steel and its alternatives, side by side
Figures from each vendor's public pricing page, read 27 Sep 2026. Plans change; check theirs before you decide.
| Service | What you get | Browser time | Residential proxy | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel | Browser API for your own code; open-source core | $0.10 / hr (Launch), $0.08 / hr (Scale) | $10 / GB, $6 / GB | $0 + usage, or $250 / month |
| Browserbase | Browser API for your own code, Stagehand SDK | $0.12 / hr (Developer), $0.10 / hr (Startup) over included hours | $12 / GB, $10 / GB | $20 or $99 / month; free tier 1 hr |
| Browser Use Cloud | Browsers for your code, or a hosted agent | $0.02 / hr | $5 / GB | Pay as you go; agents are model cost + 20% |
| Hyperbrowser | Browsers, scrape API, hosted agents | $0.10 / hr | $10 / GB (paid plans) | Free, $30 or $100 / month in credits |
| Human Browser | Goal-level API: our agent does the task | $0.10 / hr; agent $0.02 / step, AI included | $4 / GB, on by default, 75 countries | Pay as you go: first top-up $1, then from $5 |
How to choose
- You have Playwright or Puppeteer code and want it cheaper: Browser Use Cloud browsers are the lowest per hour; Steel Scale is cheapest on captchas ($1 per 1,000).
- You want to self-host: stay on Steel (Apache-2.0 core).
- You need scraping endpoints next to the browser: Hyperbrowser has fetch, scrape and crawl at $0.001 a page.
- You do not want to build or run the agent at all: Human Browser. Send the task, get the result, watch it in a live viewer, step in if a code is needed. Median task on our production: about 8 agent steps, $0.24 all-in.
Human Browser in two calls
curl -X POST https://agent.humanbrowser.cloud/a2a \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer hb_live_xxxx' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "message/send",
"params": {
"message": { "role": "user",
"parts": [{"kind":"text","text":"Open news.ycombinator.com and return the top 5 story titles as JSON."}] },
"metadata": { "country": "us" }
}
}'curl -X POST https://agent.humanbrowser.cloud/a2a \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer hb_live_xxxx' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tasks/get","params":{"id":"<task id from result.id>","wait_seconds":30}}'Full reference in the docs, or use the MCP server from Claude, Cursor or Codex.
FAQ
What does Steel.dev cost?
As of Sep 2026: Launch is $0 plus usage with $30 of one-time credit (valid 90 days); Scale is $250 a month plus usage with $100 of monthly credit. Browser hours are $0.10 on Launch and $0.08 on Scale, proxy bandwidth $10 or $6 per GB, captcha solves $3 or $1 per 1,000. Concurrency is 10 on Launch and 100 on Scale.
What is the cheapest Steel alternative?
For raw browser time, Browser Use Cloud at $0.02 per browser hour, as of Sep 2026. Browserbase and Hyperbrowser sit around $0.10 to $0.12 per hour like Steel. Human Browser is also $0.10 per browser-hour, plus $0.02 per agent step with the AI included, because it sells the agent that does the task rather than a bare browser.
When is Human Browser a better choice than Steel?
When you would rather send a task in plain English than write and maintain Playwright code, when you want residential IP by default at $4 per GB with no plan or deposit, and when a person sometimes needs to step in through a live viewer. The median task on our production took about 8 agent steps and cost $0.24 all-in at today's rates.
When should I stay on Steel?
If you already have automation code, need the lowest cost per browser-hour, want to self-host the open-source core, or need 100+ concurrent sessions, SSO or a HIPAA BAA. Human Browser does none of those as well.
Try it on a real task
A $1 first top-up covers about four median tasks. Later top-ups from $5.
Try it for $1
