# Browserless review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Hosted headless browsers for scraping and automation

Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Browserless runs headless browsers as a service, so scripts written for Playwright or Puppeteer can connect to a remote endpoint instead of managing their own Chrome. It also offers REST APIs for screenshots, PDFs and scraping, plus an MCP server. Plans are priced by usage units and concurrent browsers, and self-hosting is available.

- **Category:** Automation
- **Made by:** Browserless
- **Website:** https://www.browserless.io
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you do not write code, as there is no point-and-click builder.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 12, 2026, Browserless has a free plan, and paid plans start at $25 per month, billed annually.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Free plan, no card required: 1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers and a 2-minute maximum session.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers, 2-minute sessions and BrowserQL. Includes captcha solving and Chrome extensions. |
| Prototyping | $25 per month, billed annually | 20k units a month, 10 concurrent browsers (+5 on annual billing), 15-minute sessions, overage at $0.0020 per unit. |
| Starter | $140 per month, billed annually | 180k units a month, 40 concurrent browsers (+10 on annual billing), 30-minute sessions, overage at $0.0017 per unit. |
| Scale | $350 per month, billed annually | 500k units a month, 100 concurrent browsers (+20 on annual billing), 60-minute sessions, overage at $0.0015 per unit. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Private deployments or licensed self-hosting, SSO, user roles, GPU infrastructure and a dedicated account manager. |

Read from https://www.browserless.io/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Browserless before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save 30% with annual billing** (Annual discount): The pricing page says annual billing saves 30% and adds concurrency on the Prototyping, Starter and Scale plans. Source: https://www.browserless.io/pricing

## Key features

- **Hosted headless browsers:** Remote Chrome, WebKit and Firefox sessions that connect to existing Playwright or Puppeteer scripts by changing the endpoint.
- **BrowserQL:** A query language and editor for describing browser tasks, available on every plan including Free.
- **APIs for common jobs:** REST endpoints for PDFs, screenshots and downloads, along with a search API and an MCP server for AI agents.
- **Sessions and replays:** Session reconnects, persisted sessions, replays and log search, with retention that grows from 1 day on Free to 90 days on Scale.
- **Proxies and captcha solving:** Residential and datacenter proxies and automatic captcha solving are metered in units; bring-your-own proxies start on Prototyping.
- **Self-hosting:** Open-source and private Docker versions can be self-hosted, and Enterprise adds a commercial license with Kubernetes and GPU options.

## Good for

- Developers who want to run Puppeteer or Playwright without hosting browsers
- Teams scraping or capturing pages at volume, with metered usage
- AI agent builders who need a real browser behind an API or MCP

## Worth knowing

- A unit is up to 30 seconds of browser time, and longer sessions use another unit per 30 seconds.
- Residential proxies cost 6 units per MB, datacenter proxies 2 units per MB and each solved captcha 10 units.
- Listed prices are the annual-billing view; monthly billing is offered but its prices were not readable.
- The free plan has 1k units a month and 2-minute sessions, so larger jobs need a paid plan.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Browserless runs headless Chrome for you, with a free plan and paid plans from $25 a month on annual billing. You write the code yourself, and units are used up faster by long sessions, proxies and captchas.

- **Value for money: C.** Prototyping is $25 a month on annual billing, between the cheaper quarter ($10) and the dearer quarter ($29) of automation tools.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** A free plan with no card: 1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers and 2-minute sessions. Bigger jobs will outgrow it.
- **Features: B.** Hosted browsers, BrowserQL, session replays, proxies, captcha solving and a self-hosting option. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core work.
- **Ease of use: D.** You drive it with code through Playwright, Puppeteer or its own query language, so it needs programming.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web service that works with Playwright and Puppeteer. No desktop or phone app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Browserless's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among automation tools

- Browserless's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 21 of the 71 other automation tools we grade, and level with 18.
- It stands best on features (B, above 35 of 71) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $25 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 26 of the 38 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 13 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/automation

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Browserless you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 32 of the 71 other automation tools grade higher. It costs $300 a year. Browserless is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.

- You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change.
- You could not: Capture tools hooked into the operating system.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Playwright, Puppeteer

**Tags:** Public API, Workflow automation, Screenshots, Self-hostable, Open source

## Alternatives

- [Axiom.ai](https://toolgpa.com/tools/axiom-ai): Browser automation and web scraping bots, built without code. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/axiom-ai-vs-browserless)
- [Browse AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/browse-ai): No-code web scraping and website change monitoring. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browse-ai-vs-browserless)
- [Skyvern](https://toolgpa.com/tools/skyvern): Open-source AI agents that automate workflows in the browser. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browserless-vs-skyvern)
- [Ui.Vision](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ui-vision): Open-source browser and desktop automation with computer vision. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browserless-vs-ui-vision)
- [UiPath](https://toolgpa.com/tools/uipath): Enterprise platform for RPA, AI agents and process orchestration. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browserless-vs-uipath)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026:

- https://www.browserless.io/pricing

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/browserless
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).