Browserbase — Cloud Browser Infra for AI Agents

Quick Use

1. Sign up at browserbase.com — copy your API key + project ID
2. npm install @browserbasehq/stagehand
3. Set BROWSERBASE_API_KEY + BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID env vars and use the Stagehand snippet below

Intro

Browserbase is the cloud Chromium platform behind Stagehand and most production AI browser-automation stacks. Spin up a browser via API, drive it with Playwright or Stagehand, get back screenshots, network logs, and full session replay — without managing Chrome on your own infra. Best for: agents that need persistent browser sessions, residential proxies, or 100+ parallel scraping jobs. Works with: Stagehand, Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, Browser Use. Setup time: 2 minutes (sign up + API key).

What you get

Connect from Stagehand

import { Stagehand } from "@browserbasehq/stagehand";

const stagehand = new Stagehand({
  env: "BROWSERBASE",  // not LOCAL
  apiKey: process.env.BROWSERBASE_API_KEY,
  projectId: process.env.BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID,
});

await stagehand.init();

// Drive with natural language
await stagehand.act("Click the login button");
await stagehand.act("Fill in email with foo@bar.com");

// Or extract structured data
const products = await stagehand.extract({
  instruction: "Get all product names and prices on this page",
  schema: z.object({
    products: z.array(z.object({
      name: z.string(),
      price: z.number(),
    })),
  }),
});

Connect from Playwright

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright
import os

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.connect_over_cdp(
        f"wss://connect.browserbase.com?apiKey={os.environ['BROWSERBASE_API_KEY']}"
    )
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")
    page.screenshot(path="example.png")

Pricing snapshot

• Free tier: 1 hour of browser time / month, no credit card
• Pro: starts $99/mo for ~150 hours
• Scale: custom for >1000 hours/mo, residential proxies, dedicated infra

FAQ

Q: Is Browserbase free? A: Yes — there's a free tier with 1 hour of browser time per month, no credit card. Paid plans start at $99/mo for production workloads.

Q: How is this different from Stagehand? A: Stagehand is the automation library (the natural-language API that drives the browser). Browserbase is the infrastructure (the cloud Chromium that Stagehand connects to). Stagehand also runs locally, but Browserbase makes it scale.

Q: Can my AI agent stay logged in across sessions? A: Yes — Browserbase persistent contexts save cookies and localStorage. Pass the contextId on the next session and the browser resumes logged-in state. Critical for scraping authenticated dashboards.

Source & Thanks

Built by Browserbase. Commercial product with free tier.

browserbase/sdk-node — ⭐ Active SDK