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Steel Browser review

Steel Browser is an open-source browser API and sandbox that lets AI agents and apps automate the web through managed Chrome sessions.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

Steel Browser is an open-source browser API for building AI agents and browser automation tools. It manages sessions, pages and browser processes, so developers can control Chrome with Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium. It also includes proxy support, anti-detection, a debugging UI and quick endpoints for scraping, screenshots and PDFs.

Steel Browser at a glance

Category
Browser and computer use
Maintained by
Steel (organization, @steel-dev on GitHub)
License
Apache 2.0
Language
TypeScript, EJS, CSS
Repository
github.com/steel-dev/steel-browser
Website
steel.dev
npm package
steel-sdk 0.18.0
PyPI package
steel-sdk 0.19.0
Latest release
v0.5.4-beta on GitHub, Aug 25, 2026
First published
Nov 1, 2024

What Steel Browser does

  • Steel Browser gives full control over Chrome instances through Puppeteer and CDP, with connections from Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium.
  • Steel Browser maintains browser state, cookies and local storage across requests within a session.
  • Steel Browser includes built-in proxy chain management for IP rotation, plus stealth plugins and fingerprint management.
  • Steel Browser can load custom Chrome extensions into sessions.
  • Steel Browser provides quick action endpoints to scrape pages, take screenshots, and download PDFs of web pages.
  • Steel Browser includes request logging and a UI to view and debug sessions.
  • Steel Browser handles automatic cleanup and browser lifecycle management.

How it works

Steel Browser runs as a server, by default on port 3000, with a UI and a console debugger on port 9223. You create sessions through the REST API, or through the Node and Python steel-sdk packages. You then drive the browser with Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium. The SDKs work with both Steel Cloud and self-hosted instances.

How to install and start using Steel Browser

With Docker

docker run -p 3000:3000 -p 9223:9223 ghcr.io/steel-dev/steel-browser

With Docker Compose

docker compose up

Requirements

  • Docker, or Node.js with Chrome installed in a standard path or set through CHROME_EXECUTABLE_PATH.
  • Python 3.9 or newer for the Python SDK.
  • Mac Silicon users need DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/arm64 when using docker compose.

First steps

  1. Run the Docker image, then open the API at http://localhost:3000 and the UI at http://localhost:3000/ui.
  2. Create a browser session with a POST request to /v1/sessions or with client.sessions.create in the SDK.
  3. Connect to the session with Puppeteer or Playwright using the session ID or the root URL.
  4. Browse the local API documentation at http://localhost:3000/documentation.

Who Steel Browser is for

  • Developers building AI agents that need a real browser to navigate, click and type.
  • Teams that want to self-host browser automation infrastructure instead of building it from scratch.
  • Teams with existing Selenium workflows that want a WebDriver-compatible browser backend.
  • Developers who need quick scraping, screenshots or PDFs from web pages.

Limitations to know

  • Steel Browser is in public beta and changing frequently.
  • Selenium sessions do not support all features of the CDP-based sessions API.
  • Running with Node.js directly requires a local Chrome executable.

Is Steel Browser growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Steel Browser ranked #183 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #7 in Browser and computer use, with a momentum score of 47 out of 100. Its main package had about 158.7k downloads that week, +26% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for Steel Browser12 weeks from Aug 9, 2026: 41, 39, 41, 31, 46, 37, 33, 40, 61, 52, 38, 35 new stars, an average of 41 a week.Aug 9week of Oct 25
New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).
Show the weekly numbers
New GitHub stars per week for Steel Browser
Week ofNew stars
Aug 9, 202641
Aug 16, 202639
Aug 23, 202641
Aug 30, 202631
Sep 6, 202646
Sep 13, 202637
Sep 20, 202633
Sep 27, 202640
Oct 4, 202661
Oct 11, 202652
Oct 18, 202638
Oct 25, 202635

On Hacker News

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

Steel Browser alternatives

Other browser and computer-use agents on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Browser and computer use ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
RankToolStarsDownloads/wk
#1ego liteego lite is a Chromium-based browser that lets AI agents like Claude Code or Codex run browser automation using your logged-in browser…21k–
#2MoliMoli is an open-source headless browser for AI agents, built in Rust, that fetches, extracts, and automates web pages through CLI, CDP,…21.9k–
#3CuaCua is open-source infrastructure that gives AI agents full desktops, with desktop automation drivers, local VMs, sandboxes, and…31.4k–
#4Browser HarnessBrowser Harness is an open-source Python tool that lets Claude Code, Codex or Cursor control your real Chrome browser, logged in as you.18.8k3.3M
#5Jev UltrafastJev Ultrafast is an open-source Python browser agent that picks an operation and an indexed page element per step, using TypeSafe's Jev.24k–
#6StagehandStagehand is an SDK for building browser agents that automate and extract data from websites using natural language, in TypeScript,…25.9k3M

All browser and computer-use agents, ranked

Recent Steel Browser releases

Steel Browser FAQ

Is Steel Browser free and open source?

Yes. Steel Browser's source code is on GitHub (steel-dev/steel-browser) under the Apache 2.0 license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://steel.dev/pricing) for any paid plans.

How do I install Steel Browser?

Run docker run -p 3000:3000 -p 9223:9223 ghcr.io/steel-dev/steel-browser. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Steel Browser still maintained?

Yes. The steel-dev/steel-browser repository was last updated on Oct 20, 2026, and the latest release, v0.5.4-beta on GitHub, came out on Aug 25, 2026.

How popular is Steel Browser?

Steel Browser has 7.9k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 35 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 41 a week. Its main package had about 158.7k downloads that week, +26% against its own 4-week average. That made it #7 among browser and computer-use agents on the Devtoolwatch Board.

Steel Browser vs Browser Use: how do they compare?

Steel Browser and Browser Use are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as browser and computer-use agents. Steel Browser has 7.9k GitHub stars and Browser Use has 119.7k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Steel Browser's main package had 158.7k downloads and Browser Use's had 1.5M. Browser Use review.

What are the best alternatives to Steel Browser?

Other browser and computer-use agents on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: ego lite (#1), Moli (#2), Cua (#3), Browser Harness (#4), Jev Ultrafast (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Can I use Playwright or Selenium with Steel Browser?

Yes. Steel Browser lets you connect with Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium. For Selenium, create a session with the isSelenium option. Selenium sessions do not support every feature of the CDP-based sessions.

Can I self-host Steel Browser instead of using Steel Cloud?

Yes. You can run Steel Browser locally with Docker or Node.js, or deploy it to a cloud provider. The README lists a prebuilt Docker image and one-click deploys to Railway and Render. The SDKs work with both self-hosted instances and Steel Cloud.

Does Steel Browser have SDKs?

Yes. Steel Browser has fully typed Node and Python SDKs, both published as steel-sdk. They are built on the REST API. Use the baseURL option in Node or base_url in Python to point them at your instance.

What ports does Steel Browser use?

With the Docker image, Steel Browser serves the API and UI on port 3000 and uses port 9223 for the console debugger. When run with Node.js or the dev compose file, the UI runs on port 5173.

Sources

  1. steel-dev/steel-browser on GitHub
  2. Steel Browser README
  3. steel-sdk on npm
  4. steel-sdk on PyPI
  5. Steel Browser website
  6. Release v0.5.4-beta (Aug 25, 2026)
  7. Release v0.5.3-beta (Apr 24, 2026)
  8. Release v0.5.2-beta (Mar 15, 2026)
  9. Hacker News: Show HN: Steel.dev – An open-source browser API for AI agents and apps
  10. Hacker News: Show HN: AI Browser Agent Leaderboard
  11. Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026

Steel Browser README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

Devtoolwatch badge for Steel Browser

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/steel.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/steel/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].