# Lightpanda review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Lightweight headless browser for automation and AI agents Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Lightpanda is a headless browser engine written in Zig for crawling, automation and AI agents. It runs JavaScript but does no graphical rendering. You can run it locally under an open-source license or use the hosted Lightpanda Cloud, which is priced in browser hours. - **Category:** Browsers - **Made by:** Lightpanda - **Website:** https://lightpanda.io - **Runs on:** Linux, macOS - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want to read websites: it has no graphical interface. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Lightpanda has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19 per month for 300 browser hours. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Explorer: 10 browser hours a month and 5 concurrent sessions on Lightpanda Cloud. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Explorer | $0 per month for 10 browser hours | 5 concurrent sessions, community support on Discord, bring your own proxy. | | Builder | $19 per month for 300 browser hours | 30 concurrent sessions, email and Slack support, bring your own proxy. Hours beyond 300 cost $0.08 each. | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom volume pricing, dedicated support, SLA and uptime guarantees, and on-premise or private cloud options. | Read from https://lightpanda.io/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Lightpanda before buying. ## Key features - **Built for machines:** A browser engine built from scratch for headless use, running JavaScript without rendering graphics. - **CDP support:** Works with Puppeteer, Playwright and Chromedp through the Chrome DevTools Protocol; the docs also cover WebDriver and Selenium. - **Agent tooling:** The docs list an MCP server, an agent mode with PandaScript, and a Python SDK. - **Local or cloud:** Install it locally with a one-line script, Docker or a package manager, or run sessions on Lightpanda Cloud. - **Speed and memory claims:** The vendor's benchmark, run against chromedp on 933 pages, shows 5 seconds against 46 and 123 MB against 2 GB peak memory. ## Good for - Developers running crawlers and scraping jobs at scale - Teams building AI agents that need a fast, low-memory browser - Anyone who wants to self-run an open-source headless browser ## Worth knowing - It has no graphical interface: it is a headless engine, not a browser for everyday browsing. - The vendor's site lists Linux, macOS and Windows through WSL as operating systems. - Cloud plans bring your own proxy. - The vendor's benchmark numbers are its own, run on one test setup. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Lightpanda is a headless browser engine in Zig for crawling, automation and AI agents. It runs JavaScript but draws no pages, so it is not a browser for reading the web, and the speed numbers on its site are its own. - **Value for money: A.** Open source to run yourself, and Lightpanda Cloud has a $0 Explorer plan. Builder is $19 a month, under this category's $19.99 dearer quarter. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Run it locally at no charge, or use Cloud's Explorer plan with 10 browser hours and 5 concurrent sessions a month. - **Features: D.** One narrow function: a headless engine with CDP support, and you need Puppeteer, Playwright or similar to drive it. - **Ease of use: D.** No rating on record. It has no graphical interface and is driven by code and the command line. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Linux and macOS, with Windows through WSL, and works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Chromedp, Selenium and Stagehand. No phone. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Lightpanda's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among browsers - Lightpanda's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 17 of the 60 other browsers we grade, and level with 2. - It stands best on value for money (A, above 22 of 60) and worst on features (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $19 a month, against a middle price of $9.50 for the category: 14 of the 19 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.3 out of 4. 48 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/browsers ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Lightpanda you would be making a web browser. 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: 41 of the 60 other browsers grade higher. It costs $228 a year. Lightpanda is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: A web browser. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: A real app for macOS and Linux. Something home-made would be a web page. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Chromedp, Selenium, Stagehand **Tags:** Web browser, Open source, Workflow automation ## Alternatives - [Hyperbeam](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hyperbeam): API for embedding shared cloud browsers and virtual computers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hyperbeam-vs-lightpanda) - [Kasm Workspaces](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kasm-workspaces): Containerized desktops, apps and browsers streamed to a browser. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kasm-workspaces-vs-lightpanda) - [Chromium](https://toolgpa.com/tools/chromium): Open-source browser project, with builds for testing and development. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/chromium-vs-lightpanda) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://lightpanda.io - https://lightpanda.io/pricing - https://lightpanda.io/docs Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/lightpanda Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).