The right browser for OpenClaw, laptop or server.

On your own laptop, use OpenClaw's built-in local browser: it is free, sites see your own IP, and its user and chrome profiles use your signed-in Chrome. On a VPS or in Docker, either run an OpenClaw node host on a machine that has Chrome, or point a browser profile at a hosted stealth browser with one cdpUrl. Browser Use Cloud costs $0.02 per browser-hour plus $5/GB for residential proxy traffic, and got through on 90.5% of visits on Stealth Bench V2, against 82% for Anchor, the best of six other providers (sites picked where Browser Use Cloud historically got through, so not a balanced sample).

Add a browser profile to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json whose cdpUrl is wss://connect.browser-use.com?apiKey=<BROWSER_USE_API_KEY>&proxyCountryCode=us, and set it as defaultProfile. OpenClaw then runs its browser commands, such as openclaw browser open, snapshot and screenshot, on a Browser Use cloud browser. No SDK is needed. The config is in both the Browser Use OpenClaw guide and OpenClaw's remote browser docs.

No. On your own computer, OpenClaw's built-in openclaw profile runs a separate local browser, and its user and chrome profiles drive your real signed-in Chrome. That costs nothing and sites see your own IP. When OpenClaw runs on a VPS or in Docker, you can run an OpenClaw node host on a machine that has Chrome, and the Gateway sends browser actions to it. A hosted browser fits when there is no always-on machine with Chrome, you need many parallel sessions, or you need residential IPs and stealth.

Sync a login from your local Chrome into a Browser Use profile with the profile sync helper, then add profileId=<PROFILE_ID> to the cdpUrl. The browser starts with the synced login cookies, so no password goes into the prompt. Re-sync when the site's login expires; some sites bind sessions to a device or network.

Per browser-hour, from each provider's own pricing page, checked October 15, 2026: Browser Use Cloud $0.02 (pay as you go, billed by the minute, no subscription); Anchor $0.05 (plus $0.01 per browser created; full stealth from the $2,000/month Growth plan); Kernel $0.06 to $0.48 (headless to headful, billed per GB-second; plans $0 to $200/month); Steel $0.08 to $0.10 ($0.08 on the $250/month Scale plan; stealth browser on Enterprise); Browserbase $0.10 to $0.12 (after 100 or 500 hours included in $20 or $99/month plans); Hyperbrowser $0.10 (billed in credits; plans $0 to $100/month, Free includes 5,000 credits); Browserless $0.18 to $0.24 (overage, billed in 30-second units; plans $25 to $350/month). Browser Use Cloud residential proxy traffic is $5/GB. A session runs at most its timeout, set in minutes in the cdpUrl.

On Stealth Bench V2, every hosted browser tested: Browser Use Cloud 90.5%, Anchor 82%, Kernel 80.5%, Browserbase 78.5%, Browserless 77.5%, Steel 74.5%, Hyperbrowser 73.5%. Share of 200 scheduled visits (100 sites × 2 runs) where a judge model, shown the page without the provider name, confirmed the real site loaded within 60 seconds. Each provider ran with its own managed proxy and CAPTCHA solver, plus whatever stealth its plan includes. Steel's stealth browser and Browserbase's Verified mode need Enterprise plans and were not used. 17 of Browserless's 200 visits were unresolved and count as not through; had all got through it would be 86%, and an independent rerun put it at 83%. The 100 sites were picked because Browser Use Cloud historically got through where stock Chrome with a US proxy did not. They are hard on purpose and not a balanced sample of the web or of anti-bot vendors. Code and raw results are public.

Browser Use Cloud is hosted only. Browserless can run in Docker next to OpenClaw; OpenClaw's docs show that setup with attachOnly: true. Self-hosted Browserless is free for non-commercial use; commercial use needs a license (SSPL-1.0 or a commercial license). Steel's steel-browser (Apache-2.0) is open source and runs in Docker too. Kernel publishes its browser image (Apache-2.0) to run in Docker, separate from its hosted service.