# Steel review (2026): is it worth $250 a month? > Open-source browser infrastructure for AI agents Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Steel is an API for controlling fleets of cloud browsers, built for AI agents that need to browse, scrape or test the web. Steel Browser is the open-source server you can host yourself; Steel Cloud is the managed version with scaling, proxies and CAPTCHA solving. Billing is a small monthly fee plus usage. - **Category:** AI Agents - **Made by:** Steel - **Website:** https://steel.dev - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you outgrow Launch, as Scale is $250 a month plus usage. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Steel is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $250 per month plus usage (Scale), after a free Launch plan. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** Launch plan: $30 of credits granted once, no card required. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | 1,000+ concurrent sessions, sessions up to 24 hours, reserved browser pools, SLAs and SSO. | Read from https://steel.dev/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Steel before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers who want to self-host an open-source browser server for agents - Teams running many parallel browser sessions for research or QA - Startups that want to begin on free credits and pay as agents run ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Steel offers browser sessions over an API, as an open-source server you can host or a managed cloud. The free Launch plan is a one-time $30 in credits and 15-minute sessions, and the next plan is $250 a month plus usage. - **Value for money: D.** Scale 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: C.** Launch 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: C.** Browser sessions, proxies, CAPTCHA solving, a scrape tool and self-hosting. The comparison table marks stealth as Enterprise only. - **Ease of use: D.** No rating on record. You use an API and SDK, or host the server yourself. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web API with MCP, and a self-hostable server. No desktop or phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Steel's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI agents - Steel's GPA of 1.6 is higher than 0 of the 178 other AI agents we grade, and level with 29. - It stands best on free plan and trial (C, above 64 of 178) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $250 a month, against a middle price of $25 for the category: 92 of the 98 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. 95 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-agents ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Steel you would be making an AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. 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: 149 of the 178 other AI agents grade higher. It costs $3,000 a year. Steel is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: It plugs into other products, MCP among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with MCP **Tags:** AI agents, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API ## Alternatives - [Browserbase](https://toolgpa.com/tools/browserbase): Cloud browsers and APIs for agents that use the web. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browserbase-vs-steel) - [Browser Use](https://toolgpa.com/tools/browser-use): Browser agents and cloud browsers for AI apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browser-use-vs-steel) - [Hyperbrowser](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hyperbrowser): Cloud browsers, sandboxes and web APIs for AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hyperbrowser-vs-steel) - [Kernel](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kernel): Cloud browser infrastructure for web agents and automations. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kernel-vs-steel) - [Notte](https://toolgpa.com/tools/notte): Cloud browsers, identities and agents for web automation. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/notte-vs-steel) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://steel.dev/pricing - https://steel.dev Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/steel Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).