What it is
Browserbase MCP gives an agent a browser that runs in Browserbase's cloud rather than on your machine. It is built on Stagehand, Browserbase's AI browser library, so the agent issues instructions like 'click the login button' and a separate model works out which element that means.
It exposes six tools: start, end, navigate, act, observe and extract. The recommended setup is the hosted endpoint at https://mcp.browserbase.com/mcp with your Browserbase API key in the URL. The GitHub repository was archived on 20 July 2026 and is marked as kept for history only; the docs still describe a local STDIO option through the @browserbasehq/mcp npm package, last released as 3.0.0 in March 2026.
Install
https://mcp.browserbase.com/mcpOur review
Browserbase's case rests on what a laptop browser cannot do: run 25 to 100 sessions at once on the paid plans, rotate proxies, solve captchas and keep a session replay for when an agent goes wrong. Those are real needs for scraping and form-filling at volume, and the hosted MCP server is the shortest route to them from Claude or Cursor.
The Stagehand design is higher level than Playwright MCP. Six tools cover the job, and act, observe and extract hand page understanding to a second model, by default Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite. On the hosted server Browserbase pays for those Gemini calls, according to the archived README, which keeps page DOMs out of your main model's context and off your token bill. Choose another model and you supply its key.
The maintenance story is the weak point. The repository was archived on 20 July 2026 with a note that it does not represent Browserbase's current production service, and the npm package has not moved since 3.0.0 in March. Self-hosting therefore means running unpatched code, and anyone auditing what the hosted server does has only a historical snapshot to read. Setting the local server's --host to 0.0.0.0 also exposes it on every interface.
Authentication is cruder than it should be. The hosted endpoint takes the API key as a browserbaseApiKey query parameter, so it can end up in client logs and shared config files. The agent then reads arbitrary web pages, which makes prompt injection from page content a standing risk for any session that also holds logged-in cookies.
Where it earns its place
A growth engineer at a 15-person B2B startup
Pull pricing tables from 300 competitor and partner sites each week
The agent calls navigate then extract per page; at about two minutes a page that is 10 browser hours a week, inside Developer's 100 hours at $20 a month, with Gemini extraction paid by Browserbase.
An operations team at an insurance broker
Fill quote forms on carrier portals that have no API
act fills fields in plain English and keepAlive holds a logged-in session across calls; session replays give a compliance record. Captcha solving needs a paid plan, and HIPAA BAAs are Scale only.
A QA engineer testing a signup flow in Claude Code
Check the flow end to end without installing Chrome in CI
Add the hosted URL with claude mcp add --transport http and drive the flow with act and observe, passing the sessionId from start on every call so the session survives reconnects.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Add https://mcp.browserbase.com/mcp?browserbaseApiKey=... to Cursor (one-click link), Claude Code or Claude Desktop; locally, run npx @browserbasehq/mcp with BROWSERBASE_API_KEY and GEMINI_API_KEY set.
- Integrations
- Six tools: start, end, navigate, act, observe and extract, of which navigate and act change page state while observe and extract only read; query parameters toggle proxies, keepAlive, verified identity and the model.
- Data and privacy
- Browserbase hosts the browser and sees every page and form value; session data is kept 7 days on Free and 30 days on paid plans; SOC 2 per the pricing FAQ, DPA and HIPAA BAA on Scale. Pages are untrusted input to the model.
- Cost at scale
- 1,000 agent tasks a day at three minutes each is about 1,500 browser hours a month: Startup's $99 plus 1,000 extra hours at $0.10, about $199, before proxy bandwidth at $10 per GB beyond 5 GB.
- Limits
- Free sessions stop at 15 minutes; concurrency is 3, 25, 100 or 250+ by plan; ChatGPT does not keep the MCP session ID, so sessionId must be passed explicitly.
What's good
- Cloud browsers with 25 to 100 concurrent sessions on paid plans
- Six high-level Stagehand tools keep context small
- Hosted server covers default Gemini model costs
- Session replay, proxies and captcha solving on paid plans
What's not
- Open-source repository archived on 20 July 2026
- API key passed in the URL query string
- Free plan: 1 browser hour, 15-minute sessions
- Verified browser identity is Scale-plan only
Best for
Teams that need many hosted browser sessions for agents and are content to rely on Browserbase's closed hosted service.
Alternatives
Browserbase MCP: common questions
- Is Browserbase MCP worth it?
- Cloud browsers with Gemini thrown in for free make this cheap to start, but the open code is frozen and the hosted service is now the only maintained path. We rate it 3.9 out of 5.
- How much does Browserbase MCP cost?
- Server is free; Browserbase usage is billed. Free: 1 browser hour. Developer $20/month (100 hours, then $0.12/hour); Startup $99/month (500 hours, then $0.10/hour); Scale custom.
- What are the downsides of Browserbase MCP?
- Open-source repository archived on 20 July 2026; aPI key passed in the URL query string; free plan: 1 browser hour, 15-minute sessions; verified browser identity is Scale-plan only.
- Who is Browserbase MCP best for?
- Teams that need many hosted browser sessions for agents and are content to rely on Browserbase's closed hosted service.
- How much does Browserbase MCP cost for a team or in production?
- 1,000 agent tasks a day at three minutes each is about 1,500 browser hours a month: Startup's $99 plus 1,000 extra hours at $0.10, about $199, before proxy bandwidth at $10 per GB beyond 5 GB.
- Is Browserbase MCP safe for company data?
- Browserbase hosts the browser and sees every page and form value; session data is kept 7 days on Free and 30 days on paid plans; SOC 2 per the pricing FAQ, DPA and HIPAA BAA on Scale. Pages are untrusted input to the model.
- What are the best Browserbase MCP alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Playwright MCP, Firecrawl MCP and Apify MCP Server.
Answers checked Oct 22, 2026.