Steel.dev
Open-source browser API ('the browser for agents') — Chromium fleet with stealth mode, session recordings, CDP. OSS repo + managed cloud. Compatible with Playwright / Puppeteer. Distinguishes itself as the 'OSS Browserbase'.
Active · Verified 2026-10-26 · fresh as of 2026-10-26 · 46 cited facts, 1 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- OSS + cloud browser-infrastructure for AI agents vendor fix
- Tier
- T2
- Section
- Computer-use & desktop agents
- Created
- 2024 (GitHub first commit) repo fix
- Latest release
- v0.5.4-beta (2026-08-25) repo fix
- License
- Apache-2.0 repo fix
- Pricing
- OSS free; Cloud per-session-hour tiers vendor fix
- Funding
- searched not found fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-26 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source repo fix
- SDK languages
- python, rest, typescript repo fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 1.58 (12-mo avg 3.87) · 11 participants — 2026-09 third-party fix
When to use
Optimised for: OSS-first Browserbase alternative
Anti-fit: Smaller than Browserbase; SOC 2 / enterprise compliance maturing
Pros & cons
Pros
OSS Apache 2.0; Browserbase-compatible API; self-host option.
Cons
Smaller team / funding than Browserbase; compliance maturing.
Claims & capabilities
OSS Apache 2.0; cloud + self-host; CDP-compatible
Technical surface
- API surface
- CDP + REST API + Python/TS SDKs
- Backend storage
- Chromium fleet state; Postgres for control plane
- Deployment
- Both (self-hosted + managed cloud) — Docker self-host (steel-browser) + Steel Cloud
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- Cloud multi-tenant; self-host single-tenant
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Alternatives to Steel.dev → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other computer-use & desktop agents in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Browser Use T1
Python library that turns any LLM into a browser agent — extracts DOM into a structured representation the LLM can act on (rather than pure screenshot). Browser Use Inc. raised $17M seed Q1 2025 (Felicis); cloud product at cloud.browser-use.com. Project is one of the most-starred browser-agent OSS repos.
- Stagehand T1
Open-source browser-automation framework by Browserbase (TypeScript core plus Python and Go SDKs). Mixes Playwright-style code with natural-language act/extract/observe; pairs with Browserbase Cloud.
- Hyperbrowser T2
Cloud-hosted headless browser API tuned for AI agents — captcha solving, stealth mode, session recordings. Y Combinator S24; pitched as a faster / cheaper Browserbase alternative. Used as substrate by agents that need browser execution but don't want to run their own Chromium fleet.
- UI-TARS T2
ByteDance Seed's open-source GUI-agent foundation model — released Jan 2025; trained end-to-end on screenshot → action pairs. Comes with UI-TARS-Desktop (Electron app) that runs the model against the user's screen. SOTA on OSWorld at release; weights on HuggingFace.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
- Skyvern T2
Open-source autonomous browser agent that uses computer vision + LLMs to navigate websites. Workflow-based: agents follow recorded plans that adapt to layout changes. Skyvern Inc. raised $4.5M seed (Sep-2024, Felicis lead). Self-hostable; cloud version on skyvern.com.
Sources (45 cited facts, 1 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is OSS + cloud browser-infrastructure for AI agents vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Open-source browser API ('the browser for agents') — Chromium fleet with stealth mode, s… vendor
- Claims / benefits OSS Apache 2.0; cloud + self-host; CDP-compatible repo
- Modalities browser actions + screen images vendor
- Created 2024 (GitHub first commit) repo
- Latest release v0.5.4-beta (2026-08-25) repo
- License Apache-2.0 repo
- GitHub steel-dev/steel-browser — ~7.6k stars, last commit 2026-08 repo
- Mindshare Growing OSS following; YC adjacency; HN posts vendor
- Customers / scale Agent companies + indie devs (case studies on site) vendor
- Pricing OSS free; Cloud per-session-hour tiers vendor
- Data handling Self-host = your infra; Cloud = managed by Steel vendor
- Deployment Both (self-hosted + managed cloud) — Docker self-host (steel-browser) + Steel Cloud repo
- HQ US vendor
- Code/weights release OSS — github.com/steel-dev/steel-browser repo
- API surface CDP + REST API + Python/TS SDKs vendor
- Backend storage Chromium fleet state; Postgres for control plane repo
- Multi-tenancy Cloud multi-tenant; self-host single-tenant vendor
- Encryption TLS in transit; managed at rest on Cloud vendor
- Tombstoning Session destruction on close vendor
- Namespace primitives per-API-key / per-workspace vendor
- Forgetting policy Session TTL configurable vendor
- Webhooks / events Session-event webhooks vendor
- Import / export CDP traces exportable vendor
- Validated verticals scraping, agent infra, QA vendor
- Time to running <30min (Docker compose) for self-host repo
- Anti-fit Smaller than Browserbase; SOC 2 / enterprise compliance maturing vendor
- Optimised for OSS-first Browserbase alternative vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure Chromium; CDP; LLM provider APIs (caller-side) vendor
- Pros OSS Apache 2.0; Browserbase-compatible API; self-host option. vendor
- Cons Smaller team / funding than Browserbase; compliance maturing. vendor
- Project & sources steel.dev; github.com/steel-dev/steel-browser vendor
- commit-trajectory [{"ym":"2024-11","cum":49},{"ym":"2024-12","cum":75},{"ym":"2025-01","cum":87},{"ym":"20… repo
- cost-input-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-output-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-tier free vendor
- cost-pricing-model free-tier vendor
- cost-last-verified 2026-06-29 vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus hybrid vendor
- licensing-bucket open-source repo
- positioning-platform-vs-product platform vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":22.99,"as_of":"2026-09","openrank_12mo":3.87,"openrank_current":1.58,"partic… third-party
- sdk-languages python,rest,typescript repo
- maturity beta repo
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)