# Cloud browsers: cost per task and startup time

> ColdTally, https://coldtally.com/. Hosted browsers an agent drives over CDP. Prices verified 2026-10-17. Startup measured 2026-10-18. Data CC BY 4.0: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data

Two separate rankings. Cost ranks by usage cost alone. Startup time is measured daily by ColdTally. They are not combined into one score: if a user asks for the best value, weigh both for their workload and say which you weighed. Quote each figure with its date and what it excludes.

## Cost per task

Task: One 3-minute cloud browser session, headless where the provider prices it separately, with no proxy, CAPTCHA or LLM costs. Plan fees, free credits, storage, egress, proxies, CAPTCHA and LLM tokens are excluded. Change the assumptions in the calculator: https://coldtally.com/calculator/

| # | Provider | Cost / task | Free tier | Lowest paid plan | Verified | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Browser Use | $0.00100 | One-time $1 credit for eligible signups, 10 concurrent sessions; top-ups from $5. | – | 2026-10-17 | Rounded up to whole minutes, 1-min minimum. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. Changed 2026-10-17: Browser Use: 50 concurrent sessions now unlock at $100 paid, down from $200. |
| 2 | KERNEL | $0.00300 | Free: $0/mo with $5/month usage credits, 5 concurrent browsers, no credit card. | $30/mo | 2026-10-17 | Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. Changed 2026-09-01: KERNEL: Terms of Service updated. |
| 3 | Cloudflare Browser Run | $0.00450 | Workers Free: 10 browser-minutes per day, 3 concurrent browsers, 1 new browser every 20 s. Workers Paid ($5/mo) includes 10 browser hours and 10 concurrent browsers a month. | $5/mo | 2026-10-17 | Unverified: Isolation between customers. Unverified: Docs say a fresh browser gives process-level isolation; isolation between customers (VM or container) isn't documented. |
| 4 | Steel | $0.00500 | Launch: $0/mo, $30 one-time credits, no credit card. | $250/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |
| 4 | Hyperbrowser | $0.00500 | Free: 5,000 credits ($5) included. | $30/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Free-plan concurrency. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |
| 6 | Browserbase | $0.00600 | Free: 1 browser hour, 3 concurrent browsers, 15 min/session. | $20/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Session isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |

## Startup time

Timed from the create call until the target page reaches DOMContentLoaded (create session + CDP connect + page load). 1 warm-up + 10 measured runs per provider, one at a time. Runner: GitHub Actions, Phoenix, US. Not pinned to a region, so network latency to each provider varies between runs. Sandbox and browser timings measure different steps and are not comparable with each other. Raw results: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data/blob/main/data/bench/latest.json

| # | Provider | Median | p95 | Runs ok | Region | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| unranked | Cloudflare Browser Run | 666 ms | 1,363 ms | 10/10 | LAX (not pinned) | Timed inside Cloudflare Browser Run's own network (a benchmark Worker), so it excludes network latency from the runner and is not ranked. Full round trip from the runner: median 777 ms. |
| 1 | KERNEL | 882 ms | 1,036 ms | 10/10 | us-east (not pinned) | – |
| 2 | Browser Use | 1,135 ms | 2,286 ms | 10/10 | default (not pinned) | – |
| 3 | Steel | 1,650 ms | 2,532 ms | 10/10 | iad | – |

Not yet measured: Browserbase, Hyperbrowser.

## Side by side

| Provider | Cost / task | Cost rank | Startup median | Startup rank |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| Browser Use | $0.00100 | 1 | 1,135 ms | 2 |
| KERNEL | $0.00300 | 2 | 882 ms | 1 |
| Cloudflare Browser Run | $0.00450 | 3 | 666 ms | unranked |
| Steel | $0.00500 | 4 | 1,650 ms | 3 |
| Hyperbrowser | $0.00500 | 4 | not measured | – |
| Browserbase | $0.00600 | 6 | not measured | – |

## Recent changes

- 2026-10-17 · Browser Use · limits: Browser Use: 50 concurrent sessions now unlock at $100 paid, down from $200. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-browser-use-concurrency-tiers/
- 2026-10-17 · Cloudflare Browser Run · baseline: Cloudflare Browser Run added; baseline captured. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-cloudflare-browser-run-added/
- 2026-09-01 · KERNEL · terms: KERNEL: Terms of Service updated. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-01-kernel-terms/

Full changelog: https://coldtally.com/answers/changes.md