The Best Cloud Browser MCP Servers (2026)
By Steven Van ·
Browser Use compares five cloud browser MCP servers on price per hour, stealth, concurrency and tool design, using vendor docs checked October 18.
Browser Use has published a comparison of five cloud browser MCP servers: Browser Use Cloud, Browserbase, Kernel, Steel and Hyperbrowser. The post covers price per hour, stealth, concurrency and tools. Browser Use says it makes one of the five, so it is listed first. None of the servers were in its coding-agent eval, so there are no scores. The comparison rests on vendor documentation checked on October 18, 2026.
Three shapes of tool
The post says the main split is what the tools expose, since all five run the browser in the cloud and none can use local tabs or logins.
- Whole tasks: Browser Use Cloud takes a plain-word task and runs an agent on its side. Hyperbrowser does the same for its hosted agents, and also offers one-call scrape, crawl and extract.
- Plain-word steps: Browserbase runs one step per call through Stagehand and a small model.
- Raw steps: Kernel (Playwright code, CDP, mouse and keyboard) and Steel (accessibility tree with element refs) leave every click to the agent.
With step tools, every page the agent reads goes into its context. With task tools it reads a result. Browser Use notes this follows from how the tools are built and was not measured.
Browser Use Cloud MCP
The server is hosted at https://api.browser-use.com/v3/mcp and uses streamable HTTP with an API key header, so nothing is installed. run_session takes a task and returns right away, and the agent polls get_session for status, output, step count, cost breakdown and a live URL. output_schema returns JSON in a given shape, and model picks one of 11 models. The other tools are send_task, get_session_messages, stop_session, list_sessions and list_browser_profiles.
The browser is a hardened Chromium fork with stealth on by default. A US residential proxy is also on by default, and proxy_country accepts any ISO country code, or null to turn the proxy off. Logins come from cloud profiles passed as profile_id.
Pricing is pay as you go: $0.02 per browser-hour, billed by the minute with a one-minute minimum, and model tokens at provider cost plus 20%. Residential proxy traffic is $5/GB and direct traffic $0.20/GB, with a $5 minimum top-up. Concurrency grows with total spend: 10 at $0, 50 at $100, 250 at $1,000, 500 at $5,000 and 1,000 at $25,000.
Browser Use lists several caveats:
- MCP sessions run on API V3. V4 is the current version and the one its docs recommend for new integrations.
- There is no step control and no raw CDP.
- Automatic CAPTCHA solving is documented for V4 runs and standalone browsers, and the post says not to count on it for V3 MCP sessions yet.
- A per-run cost cap, your own model key, recording and custom proxies are REST-only.
Browserbase MCP
The hosted server at https://mcp.browserbase.com/mcp is built on Stagehand and has six tools: start, end, navigate, act, observe and extract. The default model is Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite, paid for by Browserbase on the hosted server. There is no screenshot or snapshot tool. The local @browserbasehq/mcp package still works, but its repo is archived.
Plans: Free (1 browser hour, 3 concurrent browsers), Developer at $20/month (100 hours, then $0.12 per hour, 25 concurrent) and Startup at $99/month (500 hours, then $0.10 per hour, 100 concurrent). Scale is custom, with 250+ concurrent browsers.
Which to pick
Browser Use recommends its own server for whole tasks run many at once, Browserbase for plain-word steps on an existing platform, Kernel for Playwright code and a shell in the browser's VM, Steel when a person needs to step in for logins, CAPTCHAs or payments, and Hyperbrowser for scrape, crawl and extract in one call.