---
title: Bright Data Browser API
slug: bright-data-browser-api
url: "https://toolweight.com/options/bright-data-browser-api"
homepage: "https://brightdata.com/products/scraping-browser"
categories: browser-automation-apis
last_verified: 2026-07-01
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# Bright Data Browser API

> CDP browsers on a 70M+ residential IP network with challenge handling built in

Formerly Scraping Browser, this is a CDP endpoint that happens to sit on one of the largest residential proxy networks in existence, with challenge solving and fingerprint rotation handled server-side. You connect Playwright or Puppeteer to a websocket URL and pay for the gigabytes that flow through it. The developer surface is thin compared with the agent hosts; the network is the product.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Bright Data Browser API |
| Company | Bright Data |
| One-liner | CDP browsers on a 70M+ residential IP network with challenge handling built in |
| Site | https://brightdata.com/products/scraping-browser |
| Docs | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/introduction |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Open source | No |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Browser APIs](https://toolweight.com/compare/browser-automation-apis)
Ranked **#8 of 13** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anti-bot pass rate | - | Unknown | - | - | Panel not yet run. |
| Stealth mode | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/introduction | Fingerprint rotation and challenge handling are server-side and not configurable. |
| CAPTCHA solving | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/features/captcha-solver | - |
| Residential proxy | included | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | Bundled into the per-GB price rather than free, the network is what you are buying. |
| Cold start | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| CDP endpoint | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/introduction | - |
| Playwright | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/code-examples | - |
| Puppeteer | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.brightdata.com/scraping-automation/scraping-browser/code-examples | - |
| Session persistence | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Sticky sessions exist for proxy continuity; there is no durable profile store. |
| Live view | ● | Inferred | - | - | Debugger shows the live session and attaches DevTools. |
| Session replay | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Session logs rather than video. |
| Max concurrency | - | Unknown | - | - | No published session cap; you are limited by spend. |
| File downloads | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Chrome extensions | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Browser regions | global | Inferred | - | - | Exit geography is selectable across most countries including Australia; browser location is not exposed. |
| Agent API | ○ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| MCP server | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://github.com/brightdata/brightdata-mcp | - |
| Human handoff | ○ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Pricing model | per-gb | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | - |
| Per browser-hour | - | Unknown | - | - | Billed per GB of traffic; an hourly equivalent depends entirely on page weight, so we do not convert. |
| Free tier | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Trial credit, not an ongoing allowance. |
| GitHub stars | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Funding stage | later-stage | Inferred | - | - | Private-equity owned; not venture-staged. |
| Open-source core | ○ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Positioning | A CDP browser sitting on the largest residential proxy network | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Launched | 2023 | Inferred | - | - | - |

**Verdict.** When the target genuinely fights back, this is the one that keeps working, because IP quality beats fingerprint patching and Bright Data owns the IPs. The developer experience is comparatively bare and the per-GB bill punishes image-heavy pages, so block resources aggressively and do not use it as a general agent host.

## Alternatives

- [Airtop](https://toolweight.com/options/airtop), Natural-language browser API, describe the page, skip the selectors
- [Anchor Browser](https://toolweight.com/options/anchor-browser), Cloud browsers built around authenticated sessions and human takeover
- [Apify](https://toolweight.com/options/apify), Actor platform for scraping and agents, with Crawlee as the open-source core
- [Browserbase](https://toolweight.com/options/browserbase), Managed headless browsers for AI agents, with Stagehand as the SDK
- [Browserless](https://toolweight.com/options/browserless), Self-hostable headless Chrome service; BrowserQL for bot-heavy sites
- [Cloudflare Browser Rendering](https://toolweight.com/options/cloudflare-browser-rendering), Puppeteer and Playwright bindings for Workers, plus REST render endpoints
- [Hyperbrowser](https://toolweight.com/options/hyperbrowser), Agent-first browsers with hosted scrape, crawl and CUA endpoints
- [Kernel](https://toolweight.com/options/kernel), Fast-starting browsers plus a runtime for deploying browser agents
- [Self-hosted Playwright](https://toolweight.com/options/playwright-self-hosted), The baseline: run Chromium in your own container and own everything
- [ScrapingBee](https://toolweight.com/options/scrapingbee), One-call HTML API with JavaScript rendering and premium proxy tiers
- [Steel.dev](https://toolweight.com/options/steel-dev), Open-source browser API for AI agents, hosted or self-run
- [ZenRows](https://toolweight.com/options/zenrows), Scraper API plus a CDP scraping browser on a shared residential pool

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/options/bright-data-browser-api
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/options/bright-data-browser-api.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.com/suggest