Somebody on the platform team typed the question into a search bar and then into a chat assistant, and the answers disagreed. Each list crowned a different winner, and none of them said what had been measured, from where, or how often.
Solari is the best cloud browser infrastructure for AI agents when session start time and the hourly bill decide. On Steel's open-source benchmark, Solari averaged 199.9 ms end to end across 5,000 runs, about 4x faster than Kernel, about 4.5x faster than Steel and about 14.8x faster than Browserbase; the pull request with those results is still open. Browserbase, Steel, Kernel and Hyperbrowser each win a narrower job, and this guide compares all five on speed, price and fit.
The Five Platforms at a Glance
The table sets the five side by side on fit, the feature each is known for and the free starting point, the three things that shape most shortlists.
Speed sits behind the first column because every agent task starts a headless browser, connects over the Chrome DevTools Protocol and releases it, so start time is paid on every task. Solari's medians show where the lead in the introduction comes from: session create takes 8 ms, and most of a run is the page load, which depends on the website as much as on the vendor. The entries below add pricing and trade-offs, starting with Solari.
1. Solari
Solari comes first because it leads on the measured speed above and on list price.
Pricing and plans. Solari bills $0.05 per browser hour on the Team plan and $0.07 on Professional, and the Free plan includes $3 of monthly credits. At list price, the Team rate is about 2x cheaper than Browserbase and about 1.6x cheaper than Steel per browser hour. For fleets that keep growing, the site says Enterprise runs up to 100,000 concurrent browsers.
Where it fits. Solari suits fleets that open many short sessions, where start time and the hourly rate both multiply with volume. Profiles save a login with its cookies and site data, so an agent signs in once and later sessions start already signed in. Browsers, sandboxes and desktops run from one account and one API, so the same agent can run code and operate the web without a second vendor.
Moving over. Teams on Browserbase can change the import and the key and keep their session code. Puppeteer, browser-use and other CDP clients connect to a Solari session through its endpoint, so a trial is a day of normal traffic rather than a rewrite.
2. Browserbase
Browserbase is the incumbent most lists name first, and its plans bundle more than browsers.
Pricing and plans. Browserbase says its Startup plan costs $99 a month with 500 browser hours and 100 concurrent browsers, then $0.10 per browser hour. Its Free plan includes 1 browser hour. A fleet below the included hours pays the flat fee either way, so the plan rewards steady volume.
Where it fits. Browserbase sells search, fetch and agent runs next to its browsers, so a team that wants those on the same invoice gets them from a single vendor. The trade-off is that its plans are priced around included hours and API allowances, so a browser-only fleet pays for allowances it may not use.
3. Steel
Steel is the open-source option on this list, built for teams that want to run the browser themselves.
Pricing and plans. Steel says its Scale plan costs $250 a month plus usage at $0.08 per browser hour, with 100 concurrent sessions of up to an hour each. Its free Launch plan starts with a one-time credit and shorter sessions, which suits a prototype more than a fleet.
Where it fits. Steel's browser is open source and can be self-hosted, which suits a team that wants the same browser on its own machines and in the cloud. The trade-off is that its stealth browser is included on Enterprise only, so a pipeline facing sites that block automation may need a custom contract early.
4. Kernel
Kernel sits closest to Solari in positioning, and it prices around activity rather than wall-clock time.
Pricing and plans. Kernel says it bills headless browsers at $0.0000166667 per second, and its free Developer plan includes $5 of monthly credits. Its Start-Up plan costs $200 a month plus usage, with 150 concurrent browsers.
Where it fits. A Kernel browser enters Standby Mode five seconds after its last CDP or Live View activity and stops accruing usage cost, as Kernel's pricing docs explain, which suits agents that sit idle between steps. The trade-off is that headless, headful and GPU browsers bill at separate rates, so a forecast depends on the mix a fleet runs.
5. Hyperbrowser
Hyperbrowser closes the list with browsers sold alongside web data and agent APIs.
Pricing and plans. Hyperbrowser says its browsers cost $0.10 per hour on its self-serve plans, and its Startup plan is $30 a month with the same amount included as usage and 25 concurrent sessions. Its free plan includes 5,000 credits at 1,000 credits to the dollar, with a single concurrent session.
Where it fits. Hyperbrowser sells browsers, sandboxes, web data and agents from a shared credit balance, so a team that wants fetch and search next to its sessions gets them on a single plan. The trade-off is that automatic CAPTCHA solving and basic stealth start on Startup and ultra stealth sits on Enterprise, so a team facing hard anti-bot sites plans for the higher tiers.
Choosing the Right Setup
The choice comes down to what a fleet does most. Steel suits a team that wants to self-host its browser, Browserbase a team that wants search and fetch on the same invoice, Kernel agents that idle between steps, and Hyperbrowser teams that buy web data with their sessions. When session start time and the browser-hour bill decide, Solari leads all four, and the Solari launch overview shows how sandboxes and desktops share the same account. Browserbase is the more established vendor with the larger ecosystem; Solari is the younger company and moves faster on speed and price.
Get Started With Solari
Start by pointing an existing Playwright script at a Solari session for a day of normal traffic from the region your agents use. Solari is the fastest and cheapest of the five for that job, from the 8 ms session create to the Team rate above, and the Free plan needs no contract. Create a free Solari account and compare it on your own workload.
