Stagehand vs Steel (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Stagehand grades higher than Steel: 3.0 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Stagehand grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Steel
Open-source browser infrastructure for AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick Stagehand if
- Fits if you write TypeScript, Python or Go and automate sites with no API
- Works for developers already using Playwright who want plain-language steps
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not code, because it is a library with no interface
- Not for you if you need hosted browsers at scale, as that is a separate Browserbase account
- Tight if model costs worry you: natural-language actions call a model you pay for
- Watch out: the speed and token figures on the site are the vendor's own benchmarks
Pick Steel if
- Fits if you want browser infrastructure you could also run on your own servers
- Works for developers testing agents on the free credits
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you outgrow Launch, as Scale is $250 a month plus usage
- Tight if you stay free: $30 once, 15-minute sessions and 7-day retention
- Watch out: the comparison table marks the stealth browser Enterprise only, but the homepage describes stealth generally
- Watch out: browser hours are billed on top, $0.10 on Launch and $0.08 on Scale
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAStagehandVery good | 1.6GPASteelWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AThe SDK is free under the MIT licence and runs against a local browser. You only pay for the model you plug in. | DScale is $250 a month plus usage, past the category's $150 dearest-tenth start. Launch is free, but only a one-time credit. |
| Free plan and trial | AThere is no paid plan for the SDK and no cap on it. Model API costs and any Browserbase account are yours to pay. | CLaunch has $30 of one-time credits, no card, 10 concurrent sessions and 15-minute limits. The open-source server is free but needs your own hosting. |
| Features | BAct, Observe and Extract commands, self-healing actions and a Playwright-style API in three languages. The listing shows no gap in the core job, though scaling needs another product. | CBrowser sessions, proxies, CAPTCHA solving, a scrape tool and self-hosting. The comparison table marks stealth as Enterprise only. |
| Ease of use | DNo rating on record. You install a package and write code, and supply your own model keys. | DNo rating on record. You use an API and SDK, or host the server yourself. |
| Platforms and integrations | BRuns wherever your code does, with Playwright, Browserbase and MCP links. No app of its own on desktop or phones. | CWeb API with MCP, and a self-hostable server. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | open-source browser agent SDK | open-source browser API for agents |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Stagehand and Steel. How we grade
Price against what you get
Stagehand has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Steel starts at $250 a month and scores 1.7.
Stagehand scores higher and starts $250 a month lower. Of the other AI agents on the chart, none scores higher than Stagehand for less, and 95 score higher than Steel for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Steel is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Stagehand also covers workflow automation.
At a glance
| Stagehand | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free trial |
| Starts at | Free | $250 per month plus usage (Scale), after a free Launch plan |
| Free plan | The SDK is free and MIT-licensed. You supply your own model API keys. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | Launch plan: $30 of credits granted once, no card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Browserbase | Steel |
| Price read from | stagehand.dev | steel.dev |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Stagehand
- It is a code library with no dashboard of its own; running it at scale in the cloud means a separate Browserbase account.
- Natural-language actions call an AI model you provide, so model costs are yours.
- Speed and token figures on the site are the vendor's own benchmarks.
Steel
- Usage is billed beyond included credits: browser hours are $0.10 on Launch and $0.08 on Scale.
- The comparison table marks the stealth browser as Enterprise only, while the homepage describes stealth for the product generally.
- Launch sessions stop at 15 minutes and 7 days of data retention; Scale allows 1 hour and 14 days.
- Dedicated IPs cost $5 each on Scale; reserved browser pools need Enterprise.
Key features
Stagehand
- Act, Observe and Extract
- Natural-language primitives for clicking and typing, finding elements on a page, and pulling structured data that matches a schema.
- Self-healing actions
- The site says Stagehand detects when a page changes and refreshes how a cached action is carried out.
- Playwright-style API
- Familiar goto, click, locator and screenshot methods, with support for out-of-process iframes and closed Shadow DOMs.
- Token-trimmed page context
- A trimmed accessibility tree is passed to the model; the site shows 7.4k tokens against 35.7k for Playwright on one extract task.
- Controls for production
- WebMCP support, domain allowlists and blocklists, batched commands and built-in OpenTelemetry tracing.
Steel
- Browser sessions over an API
- Start thousands of real browser sessions on demand, each released when the work is done, and control them from agent code.
- Stealth and CAPTCHA solving
- The site describes fingerprint rotation, human-like mouse movement and CAPTCHA solving, billed at $3 per 1,000 solves on Launch.
- Residential proxies
- Proxy traffic from many countries, billed at $10 per GB on Launch and $6 per GB on Scale.
- Open-source and self-hosting
- Steel Browser is open source on GitHub, and Steel Outpost runs the platform in your own cloud with your own keys.
- Scrape tool
- A browser tools endpoint for scraping is billed at $5 per 1,000 requests on every plan.
Plans
Stagehand
Open source SDK$0
Install from npm (or the Python and Go packages) and run it against a local browser; no paid plan for the SDK itself.
Steel
Launch$0
per month, plus usage
$30 of one-time credits, 10 concurrent sessions of up to 15 minutes, up to 3 seats, email and community support.
Scale$250
per month, plus usage
$100 of credits every month, 100 concurrent sessions of up to 1 hour, unlimited seats, Slack channel and HIPAA-ready BAA.
EnterpriseCustom
1,000+ concurrent sessions, sessions up to 24 hours, reserved browser pools, SLAs and SSO.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Stagehand or Steel?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Stagehand is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $250 a month for Steel. Stagehand is free, and Steel starts at $250 per month plus usage (Scale), after a free Launch plan.
Which has a free plan, Stagehand or Steel?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Stagehand has a free plan. Steel does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.