Scraping API PricesAll products / Steel.dev
Steel.dev pricing
How Steel.dev uses plan credits across browser and scraping resources, why old meter rates are unsafe, and who fits.
published session-time meter only
Fixed for this page; volume is the control.Every available option was priced in advance from published vendor rules. Changing a control only switches between those checked options; nothing is sent anywhere and no account is needed.
Your job
What Steel.dev counts
Nothing to count: Steel.dev publishes no billing meter this workload could use.
What you pay
Successes you want
200 browser hours
Your stated workload. Every vendor on this site is priced against this same number.
- ÷ 1
Attempts you are billed for
200 browser hours
Steel.dev bills failed fetches. This workload assumes none fail, so nothing is added here.
- ∅
Cash per month
Not comparable here
no published rate for browser.session_time
Bars share one linear scale across the 2 counted stages, so a multiplier shows as length. Units differ by stage and are labelled. Cash is not on that scale.
Not comparable. This product publishes no rate for this kind of work.
no published rate for browser.session_time
This is a finding about what Steel.dev publishes, not a gap in the data. It stays visible so a definitive market claim cannot quietly ignore it.
Published exact bills for comparable products
Same 200 metered browser-session hours a month, excluding separate proxy and model charges, ranked by what you would actually be billed. Unknown totals never enter the numeric order.
Every Steel.dev plan
| Plan | Monthly | If billed yearly | Prepaid pack | Included | Simultaneous sessions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | $0.00 | n/a | n/a | 30 usd | 10 |
| Scale | $250.00 | n/a | n/a | 100 usd | 100 |
What Steel.dev does not publish
- Current browser-hour rate is not obtainable from the readable pricing page.
- Current proxy-bandwidth rate is not obtainable from the readable pricing page.
- Current CAPTCHA-solve rate is not obtainable from the readable pricing page.
- Current /scrape rate and failure billing are not obtainable.
What Steel.dev is
Steel.dev is an open-source browser API for controlling hosted browser sessions from Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium, and agent frameworks. Its managed service includes session creation, browser context reuse, proxies, browser fingerprint controls, CAPTCHA handling, observability, and a scrape endpoint. The open-source project can also be run locally or self-hosted. It is for developers building web agents, browser automation, scraping, and testing that need interactive sessions rather than only URL retrieval. Source: Steel.dev, retrieved 2026-07-26.
Browserbase, Browserless, and Anchor Browser are the nearest named competitors. Browserbase separates browser hours, data APIs, agents, and proxy bandwidth; Browserless sells hosted browser capacity and units; Anchor exposes completed-task and lower-level infrastructure paths. Steel’s relevant distinction is its open-source self-hosting option plus a managed plan balance applied across browser time, proxy bandwidth, CAPTCHA solves, and scrape calls. Sources: Browserbase pricing, Browserless pricing, Anchor pricing, and Steel.dev, retrieved 2026-07-26.
How billing works
One commercial unit is a dollar-denominated usage credit, but the credit is spent across several resource meters. Browser duration, proxy traffic, CAPTCHA solves, and scrape calls are separately metered against the balance. The current Launch plan provides one-time usage credit, while Scale provides a recurring allowance before additional usage. Plan choice also changes session concurrency, maximum session duration, request limits, seats, and retention. The common buying mistake is to use the older first-party documentation table as current pricing. Steel changed its plan model in June 2026, and the older table lists retired plan names and meter figures that do not match the current Launch, Scale, and Enterprise presentation. Sources: Steel pricing update, current Steel page, and older pricing documentation, retrieved 2026-07-26.
What Steel.dev does not publish currently
- Current numeric rates for browser time, proxy bandwidth, CAPTCHA solves, and scrape calls in readable public text. Sources reviewed: Steel.dev and pricing update, retrieved 2026-07-26.
- Whether failed sessions, failed scrape calls, or failed CAPTCHA solves consume usage credit. Source reviewed: Steel pricing update, retrieved 2026-07-26.
- A current public method for reconciling each resource meter into the total before using the managed service. Sources reviewed: Steel.dev and pricing update, retrieved 2026-07-26.
Who it suits
Steel suits developers who value an open-source browser stack, need interactive sessions, and can inspect current meter rates inside the buying flow before scaling. It is less suitable for procurement that needs a complete current public rate card or success-only billing rule before opening an account. The reason is that the product and plan boundaries are clear, but the live numeric resource formula is not publicly readable enough to reproduce. Sources: Steel.dev and pricing update, retrieved 2026-07-26.
Answer
What Steel.dev costs, what it publishes, and what it does not. Every figure sourced and dated.
Recorded 2026-07-25 from the vendor's own pricing page.The published price on this page matched the vendor page when it was rechecked.