What it is
Browser Use gives a language model control of a real browser. The agent reads the page, decides what to click or type, and repeats until the task is done, such as filling a form or collecting data across pages. It is a Python library (3.11 or newer) with a CLI that gives coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex the same browser control.
It works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other providers directly, local models through Ollama, or the company's own BU2 model. A saved successful run can be replayed with new values without calling the model on every step.
The company sells Browser Use Cloud: stealth browsers at $0.02 per browser-hour, residential proxies at $5 per GB, the BU2 model and a fully hosted agent API, with no subscription plans. The open-source library sends usage telemetry, including task instructions and visited URLs, unless you turn it off.
Our review
Browser Use is the open-source library most agent builders reach for when a model has to operate a real website, and its 118,900 GitHub stars reflect that. Release 0.13.13 shipped on 15 October 2026. It drives a local Chrome or a cloud browser, works with nearly any model, and now doubles as a driver for Claude's browser toolset, implementing all 31 actions.
The first thing an engineer should know is a default. The library's config sets ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY to true, and the telemetry docs say what it collects through PostHog: task instructions, URLs visited, action traces, errors and final results. That is a long way from anonymous usage counts. Setting ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY=false turns it off, and cloud sync follows the same switch. A team automating a back-office portal with customer records should do that on day one.
The cloud prices look small and add up through proxies. Browser time is $0.02 an hour, billed by the minute, but the residential proxy is on by default at $5 per GB, against $0.20 per GB for a direct connection, so a scraping job that loads heavy pages pays mostly for traffic. Concurrency grows with lifetime spend, from 10 sessions at $0 to 1,000 at $25,000. The pricing page links to SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and zero data retention pages for the cloud; the library has no certification of its own.
Browser agents remain slow and brittle. Profile sync carries cookies but not local storage or extensions, so some sites sign you out; CAPTCHA handling depends on the cloud's stealth browsers with no guarantee; and the replay feature saves page snapshots that may contain secrets. Against a crawler such as Firecrawl, which returns a page as clean markdown for one call, Browser Use spends a model call per step, a price worth paying only when the task needs clicking rather than reading.
Where it earns its place
An operations engineer at a 30-person logistics firm
Download invoices from a dozen carrier portals that have no API
Record one successful run per portal, then replay it with new dates and account details so the model is only called for extraction and summaries. Locally the only cost is model tokens; turn off telemetry first, since it would otherwise send portal URLs and results to PostHog.
A product team building a booking assistant for 5,000 users
Run hundreds of concurrent browser sessions without managing Chrome fleets
Point the library at Browser Use Cloud with use_cloud=True. Browsers cost $0.02 an hour, but proxy traffic at $5 per GB usually dominates, and 250 concurrent sessions unlock only after $1,000 of total spend.
A developer using Claude Code or Codex daily
Let the coding agent check a staging site after each deploy
Install the CLI and register its skill so the agent can open the site in the developer's own browser, click through key flows and report errors. No cloud account is needed for local use.
Before you commit
- Setup
- uv add browser-use on Python 3.11 or newer, put a model API key in .env and run a ten-line script; it opens a local Chromium. Switching to a cloud browser is one argument plus a BROWSER_USE_API_KEY, with $1 of free credit for new sign-ups.
- Integrations
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other providers through wrapper classes, Ollama for local models, the BU2 model and gateway, an MCP server, a CLI for coding agents, and a driver for Claude's browser toolset in the Anthropic SDK.
- Data and privacy
- Telemetry is on by default and collects task instructions, URLs, action traces and results through PostHog; disable with ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY=false. Cloud links to SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and zero-retention pages. CVE-2025-47241, an allowed_domains bypass, was fixed in 0.1.45.
- Cost at scale
- Local runs cost only model tokens. On the cloud, browsers are $0.02 per hour, residential proxy traffic $5 per GB (on by default), BU2 $0.60 input and $3.50 output per million tokens, and hosted agents bill model price plus 20%.
- Limits
- Concurrency starts at 10 sessions and rises with total spend; profile sync moves cookies only; CAPTCHA success is not guaranteed; replay stops at the first changed page. About 595 issues are open.
What's good
- Works with most model providers, including local ones
- Replays saved runs without a model call per step
- Cloud browsers at $0.02 per hour with minute billing
- MIT licence; library runs entirely on your machine
What's not
- Telemetry on by default sends task text and URLs
- Residential proxy on by default at $5 per GB
- Logins and anti-bot sites remain hard
- Slow and token-hungry next to a crawler
Best for
Engineering teams building agents that must operate websites without an API.
Alternatives
Browser Use: common questions
- Is Browser Use worth it?
- Browser Use is a sound base for agents that must work websites with no API, so long as someone switches off the telemetry before it sees a customer's data. We rate it 4.5 out of 5.
- How much does Browser Use cost?
- Library free under MIT. Cloud is pay-as-you-go: browsers $0.02 per hour, residential proxy $5/GB, BU2 model $0.60/$3.50 per million input/output tokens, hosted agents at model price plus 20%.
- What are the downsides of Browser Use?
- Telemetry on by default sends task text and URLs; residential proxy on by default at $5 per GB; logins and anti-bot sites remain hard; slow and token-hungry next to a crawler.
- Who is Browser Use best for?
- Engineering teams building agents that must operate websites without an API.
- How much does Browser Use cost for a team or in production?
- Local runs cost only model tokens. On the cloud, browsers are $0.02 per hour, residential proxy traffic $5 per GB (on by default), BU2 $0.60 input and $3.50 output per million tokens, and hosted agents bill model price plus 20%.
- Is Browser Use safe for company data?
- Telemetry is on by default and collects task instructions, URLs, action traces and results through PostHog; disable with ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY=false. Cloud links to SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and zero-retention pages. CVE-2025-47241, an allowed_domains bypass, was fixed in 0.1.45.
- What are the best Browser Use alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Firecrawl, Crawl4AI and OpenAI Agents SDK.
Answers checked Oct 23, 2026.
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