Every free browser automation tier that clears our bar in 2026: 4 offers meet the criteria and 5 offers are demoted with a named reason. Recorded changes and a published ranking method. We could not confirm today's terms for 6 of them: on 2 the page we cite did not answer, and on 4 our own read did not confirm them. Each row says why.
Cloud browsers that AI agents control in plain language. The Free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, which reset and do not roll over; new accounts also get a sign-up bonus for their first billing cycle only (10,000 credits on the pricing page, 30,000 in Airtop's billing help). Free allows 3 simultaneous sessions and 1 deployed agent, with no integrated proxy. Airtop does not publish what a credit buys in browser time, and more credits need a subscription. Starter is $29 a month for 30,000 credits.
Headless browser API — 1,000 units/mo (1 unit = up to 30 sec of browser time), 2 concurrent browsers, 2-minute max session with session reconnects, automatic captcha solving, BrowserQL editor. No card required. Supports Chrome, WebKit, Firefox
Headless browser infrastructure — Free Plan $0/mo Get started with Browserbase. Explore and prototype ideas. Infrastructure 3 concurrent browsers 1 browser hour 3 Agent runs included 1,000 Search calls 1,000 Fetch calls 15 minutes /session Capabilities 7 days data retention Models $5 in tokens Runtime included Start for free
Browsers as a service for AI agents. The free Developer plan gives $5 of usage credit each month, 5 concurrent browsers in the US, stealth mode with a Kernel-managed proxy and CAPTCHA solver, and 1-day session replays; other proxies cannot be configured. Browsers are headful by default at about $0.48 an hour, so $5 covers about 10 browser-hours (about 83 headless). Kernel says sign-up needs no credit card, but its acceptable use policy lets it require a verified payment method before granting free credit. Hobbyist is $30 a month plus usage, with $10 of credit each month.
Cloud browsers for AI agents. The Free plan gives $5 of credit each month, 5 concurrent browsers, 5 new sessions a minute, the US region only and 7-day data retention (Anchor's docs), without CAPTCHA solving, full stealth or a choice of location. Usage costs $0.01 per browser created and $0.05 per browser-hour. Since August 21, 2026, AI tasks are billed per step by the tier of the model that runs them: $0.01 for Light models such as GPT-5 Mini and Gemini Flash Lite, $0.05 for Standard models such as Claude Haiku 4.5 and GPT-5, and $0.10 for High Performance models such as Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus and GPT-5.5; with your own model key, every step is a flat $0.01. Before that date every AI step cost $0.01. Anchor's proxy costs $8 per GB and proxyless egress $0.20 per GB, and Free cannot use its own proxy. Starter is $50 a month. Note — 2026-08-21: From August 21, 2026, Anchor Browser bills each AI step by the tier of the model that runs it: $0.01 for Light models, $0.05 for Standard models such as Claude Haiku 4.5 and GPT-5, and $0.10 for High Performance models such as Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus and GPT-5.5. Before that date every AI step cost $0.01. With your own model key, a step is still a flat $0.01. Browser, browser-hour and proxy prices did not change. Source ↗
Free OSS (Apache 2.0). Google-backed Chrome/Chromium automation library. Headless and headful modes, PDF generation, screenshots, network interception. Firefox support via WebDriver BiDi. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-09, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Free OSS (Apache 2.0). Microsoft-backed end-to-end testing and browser automation for Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. Auto-wait, network interception, mobile emulation. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-09, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Cloud browsers and an agent API for browser automation. Eligible new accounts that sign up with Google, GitHub or Microsoft (not email and password) get a one-time $1 credit, once per person and with no card, and Browser Use says it does not renew. Browser Use cut the credit from $15 to $1 by 2026-10-04. Until a first top-up, free accounts can use only the cheaper models. Browsers cost $0.02 per browser-hour, and the residential proxy is on by default at $5 per GB ($0.20 per GB direct or through your own proxy), so 0.2 GB of proxied traffic uses the whole credit. There are no subscriptions; top-ups start at $5. Note — 2026-10-04: By October 4, 2026, Browser Use cut its one-time sign-up credit from $15 to $1. Its pricing page read "$15 once per person" on September 21 and "$1 once per person" on October 4; its homepage still said "$15 free credits" on September 29. Source ↗
Cloud browser API for AI agents. The Launch plan is $0 a month plus usage and comes with a one-time $30 credit, valid for 90 days, which Steel puts at about 300 browser hours at $0.10 an hour. Launch allows 10 concurrent sessions, 15-minute sessions, 60 requests a minute and 7-day data retention; CAPTCHA solving and Steel's proxies need a $10 deposit first. Scale is $250 a month plus usage, with $100 of credit each month.
| Vendor | Free Tier | Key Limits | Durability | Read / catalogue date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airtop | Free | Cloud browsers that AI agents control in plain language. The Free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, which reset and do n... read found the page different · 2026-11-12 |
stable | 2026-11-12 / 2026-10-21 |
| Browserless | Free | Headless browser API — 1,000 units/mo (1 unit = up to 30 sec of browser time), 2 concurrent browsers, 2-minute max sessi... read found the page different · 2026-11-08 |
improving effective 2026-09-24 |
2026-11-08 / 2026-10-18 |
| Browserbase | Free | Headless browser infrastructure — Free Plan $0/mo Get started with Browserbase. Explore and prototype ideas. Infrastruct... read found the page different · 2026-10-24 |
improving effective between 2026-02-18 and 2026-03-21 |
2026-10-24 / 2026-10-01 |
| Kernel | Free | Browsers as a service for AI agents. The free Developer plan gives $5 of usage credit each month, 5 concurrent browsers ... | stable | 2026-11-12 |
We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 4 free browser automation offers that clear our bar, each listed with the terms we publish and the date we last read them. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
4 offers meet our criteria for this category. Of those, 2 carry no recorded change to the terms we publish, and 2 a recorded widening. The Durability column below says which offer is in which group, and links the dated record behind every change. We do not rank these by how much you get, because the limits are not comparable without reading each vendor's page.