Steel

Steel is the open-source browser API for AI agents and apps. The Steel Cloud REST API (https://api.steel.dev/v1) launches and manages cloud browser sessions, runs stateless quick actions (scrape, screenshot, pdf, search), and exposes a live session viewer, while long-running automation connects to a per-session Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) WebSocket driven with Playwright, Puppeteer, or Selenium. The same surface ships self-hosted under Apache-2.0 as steel-browser.

Steel publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Files API, Quick Actions API, Session Actions API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Browser, Web Automation, Scraping, AI Agents, and Open-Source.

Steel’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, and 8 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

36.8/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-14 · rubric v0.22.0

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 APIs

Browser Web Automation Scraping AI Agents Open-Source

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-14 · rubric v0.22.0

Composite quality — 36.8/100 · thin

Contract Quality 11.1 / 23

Developer Ergonomics 5.4 / 18

Access Clarity 7.1 / 18

Operational Transparency 4.0 / 12

Contract Governance 0.0 / 11

Discoverability 6.2 / 9

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/steel-dev: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 4

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Steel Files API

Manage files inside a session's browser context.

Steel Quick Actions API

Stateless one-off scrape, screenshot, PDF, and search.

Steel Session Actions API

Scrape, screenshot, and PDF the page in a running session.

Steel Sessions API

Launch, inspect, and release cloud browser sessions.

Open Collections 6

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

Steel Files API

OPEN COLLECTION

Steel Files Quick Actions API

OPEN COLLECTION

Steel Files Session Actions API

OPEN COLLECTION

Steel Files Sessions API

OPEN COLLECTION

Steel API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Steel Dev Plans Pricing

6 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Steel Dev Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Steel Dev Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Steel Dev Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Steel Dev Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Steel Dev Agentic Access

17 operations · 12 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: steel-dev
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/steel-dev/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Steel
kind: company
description: Steel is the open-source browser API for AI agents and apps. The Steel Cloud REST API (https://api.steel.dev/v1)
  launches and manages cloud browser sessions, runs stateless quick actions (scrape, screenshot, pdf, search), and exposes
  a live session viewer, while long-running automation connects to a per-session Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) WebSocket
  driven with Playwright, Puppeteer, or Selenium. The same surface ships self-hosted under Apache-2.0 as steel-browser.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-09-03'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/steel-dev.png
tags:
- Browser
- Web Automation
- Scraping
- AI Agents
- Open-Source
tags_raw:
- Browser
- Web Automation
- Scraping
- AI Agents
- Open Source
created: '2026-06-20'
modified: '2026-06-20'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: steel-dev:steel-dev-files-api
  name: Steel Files API
  description: Manage files inside a session's browser context.
  humanURL: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  baseURL: https://api.steel.dev/v1
  tags:
  - File
  tags_raw:
  - Files
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/steel-dev-files-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/api-reference
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/quick-actions-api
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/guides/connect-with-playwright
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
- aid: steel-dev:steel-dev-quick-actions-api
  name: Steel Quick Actions API
  description: Stateless one-off scrape, screenshot, PDF, and search.
  humanURL: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  baseURL: https://api.steel.dev/v1
  tags:
  - Quick Actions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/steel-dev-quick-actions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/api-reference
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/quick-actions-api
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/guides/connect-with-playwright
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
- aid: steel-dev:steel-dev-session-actions-api
  name: Steel Session Actions API
  description: Scrape, screenshot, and PDF the page in a running session.
  humanURL: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  baseURL: https://api.steel.dev/v1
  tags:
  - Session Actions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/steel-dev-session-actions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/api-reference
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/quick-actions-api
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/guides/connect-with-playwright
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
- aid: steel-dev:steel-dev-sessions-api
  name: Steel Sessions API
  description: Launch, inspect, and release cloud browser sessions.
  humanURL: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  baseURL: https://api.steel.dev/v1
  tags:
  - Sessions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/steel-dev-sessions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/sessions-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/api-reference
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/steel-dev.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/quick-actions-api
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.steel.dev/overview/guides/connect-with-playwright
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/steel-dev-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/steel-dev-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/steel-dev-authentication.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/steel-dev
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/steel-dev
- type: Website
  url: https://steel.dev
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.steel.dev
- type: Plans
  url: plans/steel-dev-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/steel-dev-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/steel-dev-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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