Best Scraping Browsers in 2026: 8 Web Scraping Browsers Tested and Compared
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The best scraping browser depends on the job. We compared 7 web scraping browsers with the same scripts on the same 5 sites, plus ZenRows from its own review. Gologin Cloud Browser led for logged-in and long-running scraping, Scrapfly led on antibot results, and Browserbase led on concurrency.
| Browser | Best for | Antibot score | Median startup | Entry paid price | Cost per 1,000 successful loads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gologin Cloud Browser | Logged-in sessions, persistent profiles, low cost | 4/5 | 1,760 ms (residential proxy), 3,177 ms (no proxy) | $9/month ($4.50 billed annually) | $0.44 |
| Scrapfly Cloud Browser | Antibot on datacenter IPs | 5/5 | 2,324 ms | $30/month | $2.38 |
| Browserbase | AI agents, high concurrency on paid plans | 4/5 | 2,876 ms | $20/month | $1.11 |
| Kernel | Agents that run code next to the browser | 4/5 | 3.9 s to first page (from India) | $30/month | $2.33 |
| Browserless | Many APIs, self-hosting | 3/5 | 2,485 ms | $35/month | $1.33 |
| Steel | Open source, AI agents | 3/5 | 3,687 ms | $0 + usage | $1.11 |
| Hyperbrowser | Disposable sessions for agent fleets | 3/5 | 2,706 ms | $30/month | $0.57 |
| ZenRows Browser | Teams already on the ZenRows scraping API | Not tested | Not tested | $19/month | $52.00 (Walmart) |
Antibot score: sites out of 5 (Zillow, G2, LinkedIn, Amazon, Hacker News) that loaded in at least 4 of 5 sessions on the default datacenter IP. Cost covers browser time and metered datacenter traffic. The method is in What scraping really costs.
What is a scraping browser?
A scraping browser is a real Chromium browser that runs on a provider’s servers and that your code controls through an API, usually over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). It renders JavaScript and keeps cookies, and many come with proxies, CAPTCHA solving and a browser fingerprint that looks like a regular user.
You connect Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium to a WebSocket URL instead of launching Chrome on your own machine. The provider runs the browsers, scales them and routes their traffic. Vendors also call this a cloud browser, a browser API or browser as a service.
Scraping browser vs headless browser
A headless browser is the engine: Chrome or Chromium without a window, which you run and maintain yourself. A scraping browser is a hosted headless (or headful) browser with the infrastructure around it. Headless browser scraping on your own servers means you handle proxies, fingerprints, crashes and scaling. A scraping browser API handles them for you.
A plain headless Chrome is also easy to spot. Antibot systems such as Cloudflare Turnstile, DataDome and PerimeterX read the browser fingerprint, the IP type and the automation flags. A datacenter IP with default headless settings often gets a challenge page before your script sees any data.
Scraping browser vs scraping API
A scraping API takes a URL and returns the page. A scraping browser gives you a live session that you control step by step. Use a scraping API, also called a web unlocker, when you only need rendered HTML. Use a scraping browser when the job needs a login, clicks, infinite scroll or a session that lasts. The section on web unlockers covers the difference with prices.
How we tested the web scraping browsers
Every browser in this list has a full Gologin review, and each review used the same protocol. We reused those results with their original dates and plans. We did not mix numbers from different runs.
- Startup speed. 5 sessions back to back, each loading example.com. We report the median time from the API call to a usable browser over CDP, with playwright-core and no SDK in the path.
- Antibot test. 5 sessions, each loading Zillow (PerimeterX), G2 (DataDome), LinkedIn, Amazon and Hacker News. A site passed if it loaded in at least 4 of 5 sessions, checked from screenshots, not only status codes.
- CAPTCHA solving. The vendor’s built-in solver against the sites that challenged it.
- Session persistence. Log in to a throwaway Hacker News account, close the session, open a new one and check whether the login survived.
- Concurrency. Open more sessions than the plan allows and record when the API refuses.
- Max session length. Keep a page busy every 10 seconds until the vendor closes the session.
| Browser | Plan tested | Test dates | Full review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gologin Cloud Browser | Professional | Startup 28 Sep–1 Oct, datacenter antibot 9 Oct, long session 15 Oct 2026 | Series runs (results in each review below) |
| Browserbase | Free | 9–14 Sep 2026 | Browserbase review |
| Browserless | Free | 1–3 Oct 2026, profile re-checked 9 Oct | Browserless review |
| Steel | Launch (free) + $10 balance | 6–9 Oct 2026, profile re-checked 2 Nov | Steel review |
| Scrapfly | Free | 15 Oct 2026 | Scrapfly review |
| Hyperbrowser | Free | 28 Sep–1 Oct 2026 | Hyperbrowser review |
| Kernel | Developer (free) and Hobbyist ($30) | Review published 23 Oct 2026 | Kernel review |
| ZenRows Browser Sessions | Build ($19) | 2 Oct 2026 | ZenRows review |
Two reviews used their own method, and we mark their numbers. Kernel measured startup to the first page, from India and from Kernel’s own app platform. ZenRows tested Browser Sessions on Walmart, leboncoin (DataDome), an infinite-scroll page and a login page, not on our 5 sites, so ZenRows has no startup median or antibot score here.
Most competitors were tested on free plans with datacenter IPs. Their paid plans add residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving, which can change the antibot score. Read each score as what the tested plan did.
The 8 best scraping browsers in 2026
1. Gologin Cloud Browser: best for logged-in and long-running scraping
Gologin Cloud Browser passed 4 of 5 sites on a bare datacenter IP in our October 2026 test and keeps sessions open with no time limit. Each session runs a Gologin browser profile, which stores cookies, storage, the browser fingerprint and the proxy together, so the next run comes back as the same device.
Best for: scraping behind a login, sessions that run for hours, and jobs that return to the same accounts every day.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 1,760 ms with a US residential proxy, 3,177 ms without a proxy (5 runs, 28 Sep–1 Oct 2026) |
| Antibot | 4 of 5 sites (20 of 25 attempts) on the default datacenter IP (9 Oct 2026) and with a US residential proxy |
| Zillow (PerimeterX) | Loaded in 5 of 5 sessions in both configurations, with no CAPTCHA |
| CAPTCHA | None appeared on the sites that loaded. G2 returned 403 in every session |
| Persistence | Passed. Sessions are persistent by default. A profile last used 10 months earlier opened with its cookies |
| Concurrency | 1 parallel session on Professional, $2/month for each extra session |
| Max session | No cap. A 25.5-minute session was still alive when we closed it (15 Oct 2026) |
Pricing (gologin.com/pricing, 9 Nov 2026): Cloud Browser comes with every paid Gologin plan. Professional costs $9/month ($4.50/month billed annually) and includes 100 cloud browser hours, 1 parallel cloud session and $0.09 per extra hour. Business costs $99/month ($49.50 billed annually) with 200 hours, 2 parallel sessions and $0.08 per extra hour. Enterprise costs $179/month ($89.50 billed annually) with 300 hours, 3 parallel sessions and $0.07 per extra hour. Custom costs from $279/month ($139.50 billed annually) with 400 hours and 4 parallel sessions. Any plan can add parallel sessions for $2/month each. Residential IPs are included, and traffic beyond the allowance costs $1/GB.
Gologin Cloud Browser connects over CDP with one line, so existing Playwright and Puppeteer code needs only a new endpoint:
import { chromium } from "playwright-core";
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(
`wss://cloudbrowser.gologin.com/connect?token=${process.env.GOLOGIN_TOKEN}&profile=${process.env.GOLOGIN_PROFILE_ID}`
);
const page = await browser.contexts()[0].newPage();
await page.goto("https://news.ycombinator.com/");For AI agents, the Gologin MCP server gives Claude, Cursor or any MCP client access to the same profiles:
{
"mcpServers": {
"gologin-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["gologin-mcp"],
"env": { "API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN" }
}
}
}Pros
- Zillow loaded in all 5 sessions on a datacenter IP, where Browserbase, Browserless and Steel were blocked.
- The fastest median startup measured with our method, with a residential proxy: 1,760 ms.
- No session length cap, and profiles keep cookies, fingerprint and IP between runs.
- 100 browser hours for $9/month, with residential traffic at $1/GB beyond the allowance.
Cons
- Slower without a proxy: a 3,177 ms median, and one run took 9.35 seconds.
- G2 blocked Gologin in every session, while Scrapfly loaded it.
- The entry plan allows 1 parallel session. Browserbase gives 25 for $20.
- No built-in CAPTCHA solver was tested in this series.
2. Scrapfly Cloud Browser: best for antibot pages on datacenter IPs
Scrapfly Cloud Browser loaded all 5 sites (23 of 25 attempts) on the free plan’s datacenter IP on 15 October 2026. It was the only browser in the series to load G2 past DataDome: the first response was a 403, and the real page rendered in 4 of 5 sessions.
Best for: short scraping jobs on protected pages over datacenter proxies.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 2,324 ms |
| Antibot | 5 of 5 sites (23 of 25 attempts), free plan, US datacenter IP |
| CAPTCHA | Not tested: the free quota ran out after the first site |
| Persistence | Passed, but state lasts only while the session is alive |
| Concurrency | 5 on the free plan |
| Max session | 15 minutes by default, 30 minutes at most |
Pricing: Scrapfly’s cheapest paid plan, Discovery, costs $30/month for 200,000 credits. Browser time costs 1 credit per 30 seconds. Residential traffic costs $6.05 to $7.99/GB depending on the plan.
Pros: the best antibot result in our test, browser time under 2 cents an hour, and a CAPTCHA solver that bills only successful solves.
Cons: the slowest example.com load in the series (928 ms), a 30-minute session cap, no profiles that outlive the session, and Free and Discovery plans that can’t buy extra credits.
Read the full Scrapfly review →
3. Browserbase: best for AI agents at high concurrency
Browserbase loaded 4 of 5 sites (18 of 25 attempts) on its free plan between 9 and 14 September 2026. Zillow was the site it failed: a press-and-hold check in 3 sessions, then no page at all. Browserbase’s strength is scale: its $20 Developer plan runs 25 browsers at once.
Best for: stateless agents and scrapers that start clean each run and need many parallel sessions.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 2,876 ms (Oregon), 2,527 ms (Singapore) |
| Antibot | 4 of 5 sites (18 of 25 attempts), free plan, datacenter IP. Zillow blocked |
| CAPTCHA | Paid plans only, not tested |
| Persistence | Failed: a Context did not keep the account logged in on a new session |
| Concurrency | 3 free, 25 Developer, 100 Startup, 250+ Scale |
| Max session | 15 minutes on the free plan, 6 hours on paid plans |
Pricing: Developer costs $20/month with 100 browser hours and 1 GB of proxy traffic, then $12/GB. Startup costs $99 with 500 hours and 5 GB, then $10/GB.
Pros: fast provisioning (about 0.5 seconds), live view and session recordings on the free plan, and the highest concurrency at entry price.
Cons: the free plan has 1 browser hour a month, sign-up needs a phone number from a supported country, proxy traffic costs $10–12/GB, and persistence failed in our test.
Read the full Browserbase review →
4. Kernel: best for agents that run code next to the browser
Kernel loaded 4 of 5 sites in its default mode, with G2 returning 403 in all 5 runs. On Kernel’s own app platform in us-east, startup to the first page took a median 0.36 seconds. From a home connection in India it took 3.9 seconds, so most of the delay was distance.
Best for: agent platforms that host their code on Kernel and run many short sessions.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Startup to first page | 0.36 s on Kernel’s app platform, 3.9 s from India (Kernel’s method, not comparable with the medians above) |
| Antibot | 4 of 5 sites in default mode. G2 returned 403 in 5 of 5 |
| CAPTCHA | Solver in bot-detection mode. Amazon’s Robot Check stayed in 2 of 5 runs |
| Persistence | Profiles restored cookies and storage, but every account had the same device ID |
| Concurrency | 5 Developer, 10 Hobbyist, 150 Start-Up |
| Max session | Not measured |
Pricing: Developer is free with $5 of credits, Hobbyist costs $30/month, and Start-Up costs $200. Headful browser time costs $0.48/hour and headless $0.06/hour. Proxy traffic is not billed.
Pros: the fastest startup next to the browser, ISP proxies that keep one IP, and open-source browser images and an MCP server.
Cons: the same default fingerprint for every account, a New York time zone by default, and your own proxies only from the $200 plan.
5. Browserless: best for many APIs and self-hosting
Browserless loaded 3 of 5 sites (15 of 25 attempts) on its free plan between 1 and 3 October 2026. Zillow and G2 returned 403 in all 5 sessions. With Browserless’s unblock route, its CAPTCHA solver and a residential proxy, G2 loaded, but Zillow’s PerimeterX check still failed after 90 seconds.
Best for: teams that want a choice of APIs and browser engines, or a self-hosted option.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 2,485 ms |
| Antibot | 3 of 5 sites (15 of 25 attempts), free plan, US datacenter IP |
| CAPTCHA | Free plan. Solved reCAPTCHA v2 in 18.5 s and DataDome with a residential proxy. Failed PerimeterX |
| Persistence | Passed. Authenticated Profiles are kept for 365 days |
| Concurrency | 2 free (the 3rd session got HTTP 429), 5 on Prototyping |
| Max session | 2 minutes free (cut off at 130 s), 15 minutes on Prototyping |
Pricing: Prototyping costs $35/month ($25 billed annually) for 20,000 units. One unit buys 30 seconds of browser time. Residential traffic costs 6 units/MB, about $12.29/GB.
Pros: residential proxies and a CAPTCHA solver on the free plan, six browser engines, five APIs, and self-hosting.
Cons: a 2-minute session cap on the free plan, 30-second billing blocks that round up, and residential traffic that empties the unit balance fast.
Read the full Browserless review →
6. Steel: best open-source scraping browser for AI agents
Steel loaded 3 of 5 sites (15 of 25 attempts) on its free Launch plan between 6 and 9 October 2026. Zillow showed a press-and-hold challenge and G2 returned 403, also with a residential proxy attached. Steel’s login persistence held up well: a profile was still logged in 27 days later.
Best for: developers who want an open-source browser they can self-host, with a cloud version for scale.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 3,687 ms |
| Antibot | 3 of 5 sites (15 of 25 attempts), free plan, US datacenter IP |
| CAPTCHA | Needs a $10 paid balance. Solved 1 of 4 challenges (reCAPTCHA v2 in 25.4 s) |
| Persistence | Passed. Still logged in after 27 days |
| Concurrency | 10 on the free plan, confirmed |
| Max session | 15 minutes on Launch, 1 hour on Scale |
Pricing: Launch costs $0/month plus usage: $0.10 per browser hour and $10/GB of proxy traffic, with $30 of free credits for 90 days. Scale costs $250/month.
Pros: open source, 10 parallel sessions for free, and works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium and agent frameworks.
Cons: the slowest median startup in the series, free credits that expire after 90 days, a 15-minute session cap, and sessions only in us-east.
7. Hyperbrowser: best for disposable sessions in agent fleets
Hyperbrowser loaded 3 of 5 sites (17 of 25 attempts) on its free plan between 28 September and 1 October 2026. G2 returned 403 in every session, and Zillow loaded in 2 of 5. Its paid plans scale to 25 browsers for $30 and 100 for $100.
Best for: fleets of AI agents that need many browsers at once and don’t need to stay logged in.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | 2,706 ms (550 ms to provision, 1,970 ms to connect) |
| Antibot | 3 of 5 sites (17 of 25 attempts), free plan, US datacenter IP |
| CAPTCHA | Paid plans only, not tested |
| Persistence | Passed |
| Concurrency | 1 free, 25 Startup, 100 Scale |
| Max session | Not measured |
Pricing: Startup costs $30/month for 30,000 credits. Browser time costs 100 credits ($0.10) an hour, and residential traffic costs 10,000 credits ($10) per GB.
Pros: sessions recorded by default, live view with takeover, and about 50 free browser hours a month.
Cons: a low antibot score on the free plan, your own proxies only on Enterprise, and 1 GB of traffic costs as much as 100 browser hours.
Read the full Hyperbrowser review →
8. ZenRows Browser: best for teams already on the ZenRows scraping API
ZenRows Browser Sessions (formerly Scraping Browser) passed 5 of 5 on Walmart, 9 of 10 on a login page and 4 of 10 on leboncoin’s DataDome in the ZenRows review on 2 October 2026. That review used its own targets, so we have no startup median or 5-site score for it.
Best for: teams that already use ZenRows’ Fetch API and want a CDP browser on the same credit balance.
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Median startup | Not tested. Median time per session was 31.2 to 76.0 s, page work included |
| Antibot | Not tested on our 5 sites. Walmart 5 of 5, leboncoin (DataDome) 4 of 10 |
| CAPTCHA | Not tested |
| Persistence | Sessions last no more than 10 to 15 minutes |
| Concurrency | Not tested |
| Max session | 10 to 15 minutes |
Pricing: Browser Sessions cost 25,000 credits per GB plus 5 credits per minute. On the $19 Build plan, 1,000 successful Walmart pages cost $52.00 and 1,000 successful leboncoin pages cost $158.53, because failed sessions are billed too.
Pros: one API key and credit balance across five ZenRows products, and strong JavaScript rendering.
Cons: failed sessions are billed, bandwidth drives the cost, and no session lasts past 15 minutes.
Read the full ZenRows review →
Comparison table: scraping browser API results side by side
| Browser | Startup (median) | Zillow | G2 | Amazon | Hacker News | Antibot | Persistence | Entry concurrency | Max session | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gologin (datacenter) | 3,177 ms | 5/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | Passed | 1 ($9) | No cap |
| Gologin (residential) | 1,760 ms | 5/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | Passed | 1 ($9) | No cap |
| Scrapfly | 2,324 ms | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | While alive | 5 (free) | 30 min |
| Browserbase | 2,876 ms | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | Failed | 25 ($20) | 6 h paid |
| Kernel | 3.9 s* | 5/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | Cookies only | 10 ($30) | Not measured |
| Browserless | 2,485 ms | 0/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 | Passed | 5 ($35) | 15 min paid |
| Steel | 3,687 ms | 0/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 | Passed | 10 (free) | 15 min |
| Hyperbrowser | 2,706 ms | 2/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 | Passed | 25 ($30) | Not measured |
| ZenRows | Not tested | – | – | – | – | – | Not tested | Max 15 min | Not tested | 15 min |
*Kernel measured startup to the first page from India, with its own method.
G2 was the hardest site in the series: only Scrapfly loaded it. Zillow split the field. Gologin, Scrapfly and Kernel loaded it in every session, and Browserbase, Browserless and Steel never got past PerimeterX.
What scraping really costs
Gologin Cloud Browser had the lowest marginal cost in our model: $0.44 per 1,000 successful page loads on a datacenter IP. The plan price rarely decides the bill. Proxy traffic does, and most vendors charge $6 to $12 per GB of residential traffic.
Cost per 1,000 successful page loads counts browser time and any datacenter traffic the vendor meters, divided by the tested success rate. Each session loads 5 pages in 70 seconds, Gologin’s measured time; Browserless uses its own measured 53 seconds. Each vendor’s billing rounding applies. Subscription fees are excluded.
| Browser | Browser hour | Billing step | Success rate (tested) | Cost per 1,000 successful loads | Residential traffic, 1,000 pages at 2 MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gologin | $0.09 | None | 80% | $0.44 | $2 ($1/GB) |
| Hyperbrowser | $0.10 | Per second | 68% | $0.57 | $20 ($10/GB) |
| Browserbase | $0.12 | Per minute | 72% | $1.11 | $24 ($12/GB) |
| Steel | $0.10 | Per minute | 60% | $1.11 | $20 ($10/GB) |
| Browserless | $0.24 | 30 seconds | 60% | $1.33 | $24.58 (≈ $12.29/GB) |
| Kernel | $0.48 headful | Per second | 80% | $2.33 | Not billed |
| Scrapfly | ≈ $0.018 | 30 seconds, plus 7 credits/MB | 92% | $2.38 | $15.98 ($7.99/GB) |
| ZenRows | ≈ $0.13 | Per minute, plus 25,000 credits/GB | Not comparable | $52.00 (Walmart), $158.53 (leboncoin) | Included in the per-GB rate |
Browser time is cheap everywhere. Once residential traffic enters the bill, it decides the total: 2 MB per page costs $2 per 1,000 pages on Gologin and $16 to $25 on the others that bill it. Kernel bills only browser time, which makes it the exception at $0.48 per headful hour.
Scenario 1: 25 parallel sessions, 100 browser hours, 5 GB of residential traffic
| Browser | Plan | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperbrowser | Startup $30 + $30 of extra credits | $60 |
| Gologin | Professional $9 (100 hours included) + 24 extra sessions ($48) + 5 GB ($5) | $62 ($57.50 billed annually) |
| Browserbase | Developer $20 + 4 GB over the allowance ($48) | $68 |
| Browserless | Starter (30 browsers) | $200 ($140 billed annually) |
| Kernel | Start-Up (Hobbyist stops at 10) | $200 |
| Steel | Scale (Launch stops at 10) | $250 |
| Scrapfly | Startup (Pro stops at 20) | $250 |
Scenario 2: 100 parallel sessions, 500 browser hours, 20 GB of residential traffic
| Browser | Plan | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Browserbase | Startup $99 + 15 GB ($150) | $249 |
| Hyperbrowser | Scale $100 + $150 of extra credits | $250 |
| Gologin | Professional $9 + 99 extra sessions ($198) + 400 extra hours ($36) + 20 GB ($20) | $263 ($258.50 billed annually) |
| Steel | Scale $250 + $60 of usage over the included credits | $310 |
| Browserless | Scale, billed annually (100 browsers) | $350 |
| Kernel | Start-Up $200 + $190 of browser time | $390 |
| Scrapfly | Enterprise (Startup stops at 50) | $500 |
At 25 parallel sessions, Hyperbrowser, Gologin and Browserbase cost within $8 of each other. At 100, Browserbase and Hyperbrowser come out about $14 a month cheaper than Gologin, because each extra Gologin session costs $2 a month. Gologin stays cheaper per page, so the gap closes when traffic grows. For Gologin we priced all traffic at $1/GB, the worst case.
When you don’t need a browser at all
If the page is public and the job needs no login and no clicks, a web unlocker API is cheaper and simpler than a scraping browser. You send a URL and get the rendered page back as HTML, Markdown or JSON. No sessions to start, no browser hours to pay for.
Gologin Web Unlocker renders JavaScript on residential IPs in 195+ countries, with country, state and city targeting. Blocked, challenged and empty responses cost $0, so you pay only for pages that rendered. Batch jobs take up to 1,000 URLs at once.
| Web Unlocker plan | Monthly price | Requests included | Price per 1,000 rendered pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | $49 | 50,000 | $0.98 |
| Professional | $149 | 200,000 | $0.75 |
| Business | $299 | 500,000 | $0.60 |
| Premium | $899 | 2,000,000 | $0.45 |
| Scraping browser | Web unlocker API | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | A live session you control with code | A URL |
| Output | Whatever your script extracts | Rendered HTML, Markdown or JSON |
| Logins, clicks, forms | Yes | No |
| Billing | Browser hours, plus traffic on most vendors | Per successful page |
| Best for | Logged-in accounts, multi-step flows, AI agents | Bulk public pages: prices, listings, search results |
How to choose a scraping browser
Pick by the job, not by the longest feature list:
- Logged-in accounts: Gologin Cloud Browser. Profiles keep cookies, fingerprint and IP between runs, and sessions have no cap. Steel and Browserless also passed persistence, with 15-minute and 2-minute session caps at entry level.
- Heavy antibot sites: Scrapfly loaded all 5 sites, including G2. For Zillow, Gologin, Scrapfly and Kernel loaded it in every session.
- AI agents: Browserbase and Hyperbrowser for high concurrency and disposable sessions. Gologin when agents return to the same accounts. Kernel when the agent code can run on its platform.
- Bulk public pages: a web unlocker such as Gologin Web Unlocker, from $0.45 per 1,000 rendered pages.
- Budget: Gologin’s Professional plan includes 100 browser hours and residential IPs for $9/month, or $4.50/month billed annually. Steel’s Launch plan has no monthly fee but bills $10/GB of traffic.
FAQ
Which browser is best for web scraping?
Gologin Cloud Browser was the best scraping browser for logged-in and long-running jobs in our October 2026 tests: 4 of 5 sites on a datacenter IP, no session cap, 100 browser hours for $9/month. Scrapfly scored best on antibot pages (5 of 5), and Browserbase offers the most parallel sessions for its price.
What is a scraping browser?
A scraping browser is a cloud-hosted Chromium browser that your code controls over CDP with Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium. It renders JavaScript, keeps cookies and usually includes proxies and CAPTCHA handling. The provider runs and scales the browsers, so you write the scraping logic and connect to a WebSocket URL.
What is the difference between a scraping browser and a headless browser?
A headless browser is Chrome or Chromium without a window that you run and maintain yourself. A scraping browser is a hosted browser with proxies, fingerprints, scaling and session storage included. Headless Chrome on a datacenter IP is easy for antibot systems to flag, while scraping browsers manage those signals for you.
Scraping browser vs web unlocker API: which should I use?
Use a web unlocker API for public pages that need no login or clicks: you send a URL and get rendered HTML back, billed per successful page. Use a scraping browser when the job needs a login, forms, infinite scroll or a long session. Many teams use both, one for each kind of page.
Do I still need proxies with a scraping browser?
Yes, for most protected sites. Antibot systems check the IP type before the browser, and datacenter IPs are often flagged. Most scraping browsers bill residential traffic at $6 to $12 per GB. Gologin Cloud Browser includes residential IPs in its plans and charges $1/GB beyond the allowance.
Is web scraping legal?
Scraping publicly available data is generally legal in the US, but it depends on what you collect and how. Respect a site’s terms of service, don’t scrape behind a login you aren’t authorized to use, and handle personal data under GDPR and CCPA. This is not legal advice; check with a lawyer for your case.
Can ChatGPT or AI agents scrape websites with a cloud browser?
Yes. ChatGPT alone reads only some pages, but an AI agent connected to a cloud browser through MCP or CDP can open pages, log in, click and extract data. Gologin, Browserbase, Steel, Hyperbrowser and Kernel all support agent frameworks. For enterprise volume, Bright Data’s Scraping Browser is another option.
Conclusion
No scraping browser won every test. Scrapfly had the best antibot score, Browserbase and Hyperbrowser the most parallel sessions for the money, and Kernel the fastest startup next to its own platform. Gologin Cloud Browser was the best fit for scraping that needs a login and a long session: 4 of 5 sites on a bare datacenter IP, Zillow in every session, no session cap, and the lowest cost per 1,000 successful loads in our model.
For public pages that need no session, Gologin Web Unlocker returns rendered pages and charges only for those that render. For everything that does need a browser, start with Gologin Cloud Browser.
