Browser Use vs Stagehand in 2026

The core difference

Browser Use: say what you want

You give an LLM a task — "find the three cheapest flights to Lisbon next Friday" — and Browser Use turns the page into something the model can read, lets it choose actions, and loops until it's done. It shines when you can't predict the steps in advance.

from browser_use import Agent
agent = Agent(task="Find the top 3 rated coffee shops in Lisbon", llm=llm)
result = await agent.run()

Stagehand: code first, AI where it helps

Stagehand keeps you in normal Playwright code, and adds a few AI primitives — act to perform an action described in words, extract to pull structured data, observe to find what's actionable, plus an agent mode. You script the predictable parts and let AI handle the brittle ones, like a button whose label keeps changing.

await page.goto("https://example.com/jobs");
await stagehand.act("click the 'Remote only' filter");
const jobs = await stagehand.extract("list every job title and location");

APIs in both projects evolve quickly — check their docs for current syntax.

Reliability and cost

Fully autonomous runs spend more model calls and can take unexpected paths — great for exploration, riskier for a job that has to run the same way every morning. Mixing code with targeted AI steps is cheaper and more predictable. A common pattern: explore with Browser Use, then harden the flow with Stagehand or plain Playwright.

Where they run

Both need a browser somewhere. For quick tests your laptop is fine. For agents that run for hours, keep sessions logged in, or run on a schedule, you want an always-on machine with enough memory for several browsers.

Common questions