OpenBrowse vs Browser Use Cloud
The open-source alternative to Browser Use Cloud, dimension by dimension. Both run AI browser agents behind the same v3 API. The difference is who owns the machine, and what the agent is allowed to invent.
OpenBrowse on gpt-5.6-terra at reasoning none, against Browser Use Cloud on claude-sonnet-5 at high.
| Runtime | Model | Reasoning | Time | Tokens | LLM cost | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser Use Cloud | claude-sonnet-5 | high | 2m 36s | 859k | $0.78 | 14/14invented fields |
| OpenBrowse | gpt-5.6-terra | none | 1m 47s | 202k | $0.24 | 14/14 |
| OpenBrowse | claude-sonnet-5 | high | 4m 02s | 242k | $0.40 | 14/14 |
All 10 runs, every model tried, and the exact task specification are on the benchmarks page.
Dimension by dimension
You take on running a machine. In exchange the agent stops being a black box you rent by the task.
| Dimension | Browser Use Cloud | OpenBrowse |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Managed, priced per task | Your hardware. You pay for LLM tokens and nothing else |
| How it works | Code-first. The agent scripts its way through pages | Visual-first. The agent opens real tabs you can watch, like a person working |
| Bulk page reads | One page at a time on the v3 agent we benchmarked | read_pages opens a whole listing in parallel tab waves, in one step |
| Structured output | Schema-validated | Schema-validated, plus a live answer store with a completeness gate the agent has to pass before it can finish |
| Anti-hallucination | Will fill fields the page never showed | On-screen data first, enriched only from the page's own structured data. Values without evidence are refused at the store boundary |
| Profiles | Cloud profiles | Import your existing cloud profiles, cookies and localStorage, with one command |
| Live view | A live URL you can embed from the moment the session starts, plus recordings afterwards | Real-time VNC of the actual browser, a step feed carrying the model's reasoning, and an IDE panel streaming the agent's sandbox scripts as they are written. No recordings |
| Network egress | A managed US residential proxy, on by default, with a selectable country | Your machine's own IP address. There is no proxy layer. proxyCountryCode is accepted for SDK compatibility and does nothing |
| Platform extras | Session recordings, screenshots, workspaces, and hosted integrations | None of them. enableRecording and skills are accepted and ignored, and the matching response fields come back empty |
| API | v3 REST | The same v3 REST surface |
| Operations | Someone else's problem | Yours. A box that has to stay up, and roughly 2GB of RAM per concurrent session |
Browser Use Cloud as of the v3 agent, August 2026. Their v4 agent has a different shape and is out of scope here. Of these, 3 go to the managed service, and those are the ones to check against your own setup before you move anything.
Just change two lines.
OpenBrowse serves the same v3 REST surface that browser-use-sdk already speaks. Point the client at your own box and everything downstream stays put.
import { BrowserUse } from "browser-use-sdk/v3"; const client = new BrowserUse({- apiKey: process.env.BROWSER_USE_API_KEY,+ apiKey: process.env.OPENBROWSE_API_KEY,+ baseUrl: "https://your-host/v3", });FAQs
Is OpenBrowse a drop-in replacement for Browser Use Cloud?
For the v3 REST surface, yes. It implements the same sessions, profiles, structured output and cost-cap endpoints, so an existing browser-use-sdk client moves across by changing baseUrl and apiKey. What you take on is running the machine, and the one behavioural difference worth settling first is network egress, covered below.
How much cheaper is OpenBrowse in practice?
On the reference extraction task OpenBrowse completed the same work for $0.24 in LLM tokens against $0.78 for Browser Use Cloud, using 4.25x fewer tokens and finishing 31% faster. That row changes model as well as runtime, so the conservative comparison is the matched pair: claude-sonnet-5 at reasoning high costs $0.40 here against $0.78 on the cloud, on 3.55x fewer tokens, though it takes 86 seconds longer. OpenBrowse charges no per-task platform fee, so the total gap is larger than the token comparison alone.
Where does the token gap actually come from?
read_pages opens a listing in parallel waves of up to six real tabs and reads inside embedded cross-origin panels, which is most of the token gap. Structured output is a live answer store rather than a final validation pass, with per-field coverage and a completeness gate the agent has to pass before it can finish. Values with no evidence on the page are refused at that boundary, which is why the cloud run invented job seniority on the reference task and this one did not.
Can I migrate my existing profiles?
Yes. OpenBrowse imports the Playwright storage-state format a cloud profile export gives you, cookies plus per-origin localStorage. Import one and the local profile id matches the cloud id, so existing profileId references keep working unchanged.
What does Browser Use Cloud do better?
It runs a managed US residential proxy by default, so the sites your agent visits see a residential IP rather than your server's, and there is no proxy layer here at all. It records sessions and captures screenshots, and it has skills, workspaces and hosted integrations, none of which have an equivalent. It is also somebody else's machine, with somebody else's uptime. If your current jobs lean on that proxy, test that before you migrate anything else.
Which v3 request fields does OpenBrowse accept but ignore?
Three: proxyCountryCode, enableRecording and skills. All are part of the v3 request body, so a client that sets them still compiles and runs, and the matching response fields (recordingUrls, screenshotUrl, workspaceId, proxyCountryCode) come back empty or null. Better to find that out on this page than in production.