Browserbase alternatives

For 100 browser hours a month (3,000 sessions of 2 minutes), Browserbase costs $20 on its Developer plan. 5 of the 9 other hosted browsers we price by the hour cost less, from $1 on Kernel (headless), $228 a year less. At 1,000 hours a month Browserbase costs $128.

Hosted browser	100 hours	Against Browserbase, a year	1,000 hours	Cheaper in
Browserbase Developer	$20	–	$128	–
Kernel (headless) Developer	$1	−$228	$55	4 of 4
Browser Use Pay as you go	$2	−$216	$20	4 of 4
Steel Launch	$10	−$120	$100	4 of 4
Cloudflare Browser Run Workers Paid	$13.10	−$82.80	$94.10	4 of 4
ZenRows Scraping Browser Build B1	$19	−$12	$99	4 of 4
Hyperbrowser Startup	$30	+$120	$100	2 of 4
Browserless Prototyping	$35	+$180	$200	0 of 4
Kernel (headful) Developer	$43	+$276	$475	1 of 4
Anchor Browser Starter	$50	+$360	$350	1 of 4
Bright Data Browser API	Per GB	–	Per GB	–

Sessions of 2 minutes, cheapest published plan a month, before proxy traffic; a minus sign means cheaper than Browserbase. "Cheaper in" counts the volumes (10, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 browser hours a month) where it costs less. Bright Data's Browser API bills traffic, not time, so it isn't priced by the hour.

Free alternatives to Browserbase

Plan	Free a month	2-minute sessions
Kernel (headless) Developer	$5 of usage	2,499
Anchor Browser Free	$5 of usage	428
Kernel (headful) Developer	$5 of usage	312
Browserless Free	1,000 units	250
Browserbase Free	1 browser hour	30

Plans with no fee and a monthly allowance, in sessions of 2 minutes at each plan's own rates (Anchor also charges each browser it starts).

How each one bills browser time and proxies

Kernel: time billed per second, with no charge for idle time. Proxies: No charge for proxies.
Browser Use: time billed by the minute, rounded up, with a one-minute minimum. Proxies: $5 per GB through its residential proxies, which are on by default; $0.20 per GB direct or through your own proxy.
Steel: time billed by the minute, rounded up. Proxies: $10 per GB on Launch, $6 on Scale.
Cloudflare Browser Run: time billed in daily totals of seconds, with the month rounded to the nearest whole hour.
ZenRows Scraping Browser: time billed at 5 credits a minute of session time. Proxies: 25,000 credits per GB of every session's traffic, $1.67 to $10.56 per GB depending on the plan.
Hyperbrowser: time billed per second. Proxies: $10 per GB (10,000 credits).
Browserless: time billed in units of up to 30 seconds per browser connection. Proxies: 6 units per MB of residential proxy traffic, from the plan's units: $9 to $12 per GB at overage rates.
Anchor Browser: time billed to the nearest full minute, plus $0.01 for each browser created. Proxies: $8 per GB; $0.2 per GB of traffic with your own proxy or none.
Bright Data Browser API: time billed by traffic only. Proxies: The whole bill: $8 per GB pay as you go, down to $5 on its $1,999 plan, with proxies, unlocking and CAPTCHA solving included.

Browserbase alternatives: quick answers

What is a cheaper alternative to Browserbase?

For 100 browser hours a month (3,000 sessions of 2 minutes): Kernel (headless) $1, Browser Use $2, Steel $10, Cloudflare Browser Run $13.10, ZenRows Scraping Browser $19, against $20 on Browserbase. 8 of the 10 are cheaper at one or more of the volumes we price (10, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 hours a month).

Is there a free alternative to Browserbase?

Free plans that renew every month, counted in 2-minute sessions: Kernel (headless) Developer, $5 of usage (2,499 sessions); Anchor Browser Free, $5 of usage (428 sessions); Kernel (headful) Developer, $5 of usage (312 sessions); Browserless Free, 1,000 units (250 sessions); Browserbase Free, 1 browser hour (30 sessions).

What is the cheapest Browserbase alternative at 1,000 browser hours a month?

Browser Use at $20 ($0.02 an hour), against $128 on Browserbase.

Which Browserbase alternatives bill by the second?

Hyperbrowser (billed per second) and Kernel (billed per second, with no charge for idle time), so a short session costs only the seconds it runs. Browserbase bills by the minute, with a one-minute minimum per session.

Every hosted browser at 100 hours a month

Kernel (headless)$1.00/mo$0.01 per browser hour. Developer: free with $5 of usage a month, then $0.06 an hour. Billed per second, with no charge for idle time.
Browser Use$2/mo$0.02 per browser hour. Pay as you go: $0.02 an hour, no monthly fee. Billed by the minute, rounded up, with a one-minute minimum.
Steel$10/mo$0.10 per browser hour. Launch: $0.10 an hour, no monthly fee. Billed by the minute, rounded up.
Cloudflare Browser Run$13.10/mo$0.131 per browser hour. Workers Paid: $5 a month for 10 browser hours, then $0.09 an hour. Billed in daily totals of seconds, with the month rounded to the nearest whole hour.
ZenRows Scraping Browser$19/mo$0.19 per browser hour. Build B1: $19 a month for 45,000 credits (150 browser hours), no overage. Billed at 5 credits a minute of session time.
Browserbase$20/mo$0.20 per browser hour. Developer: $20 a month for 100 browser hours, then $0.12 an hour. Billed by the minute, with a one-minute minimum per session.
Hyperbrowser$30/mo$0.30 per browser hour. Startup: $30 a month for 30,000 credits (300 browser hours), then $0.10 an hour. Billed per second.
Browserless$35/mo$0.35 per browser hour. Prototyping: $35 a month for 20,000 units (166.7 browser hours), then $0.24 an hour. Billed in units of up to 30 seconds per browser connection.
Kernel (headful)$43.00/mo$0.43 per browser hour. Developer: free with $5 of usage a month, then $0.48 an hour. Billed per second, with no charge for idle time.
Anchor Browser$50/mo$0.50 per browser hour. Starter: $50 a month of usage at $0.05 an hour plus $0.01 a browser. Billed to the nearest full minute, plus $0.01 for each browser created.
Bright Data Browser APIPer GBBilled by traffic, not browser time: $8 per GB pay as you go.

Staying? See Browserbase pricing, or the two head to head: Browserbase vs Browserless. Your own sessions on every vendor: headless browser API pricing. Pages rather than a browser? A scraping API runs it for you: see the scraping cost calculator.

Prices checked against each platform's own pricing page on 7 October 2026.