If you're building AI agents or automation pipelines, you'll eventually hit a fork in the road: do you need to automate a browser, or do you need to automate a device? Browserbase and Mobilerun sit on opposite sides of that fork. The simplest way to hold the difference in your head is this: Browserbase gives an AI agent a browser. Mobilerun gives an AI agent an entire phone. That sounds like a small distinction, but architecturally the two are solving very different problems.
Here's how each works, where they shine, and how to choose.
What is Browserbase?
Browserbase is a complete platform for building and deploying agents that browse and interact with the web like humans. A single API key gives your agent six capabilities: cloud Browsers, Search, Fetch (page retrieval as clean markdown), Functions (deploy agents next to the browser), a Model Gateway (access major LLMs through one endpoint), and Agent Identity (getting past bot detection, CAPTCHAs, and auth walls). It's positioned as one platform replacing 5+ vendors, with one bill and one debugger.
What Browserbase provides
Cloud browsers. Every POST /session launches an isolated Chrome with a fresh profile and a remote debugging endpoint your automation connects to.
Session management. Each session has its own cookies, local storage, and IP. State can be reused across sessions via Contexts, or discarded.
Framework compatibility. Works with Playwright, Puppeteer, and Selenium with minimal code changes. Browserbase also makes its own AI-native SDK, Stagehand (natural-language selectors, self-healing actions), which it recommends as the default for agent workflows.
Recordings. Every session is automatically recorded (via rrweb) - clicks, navigation, console logs - invaluable for debugging agents.
Screenshots and artifacts. Stores screenshots, page HTML, and network logs to diagnose failures.
Proxy support. Configure residential or datacenter proxies per session without managing them yourself.
Parallel browsers. Need hundreds of Chrome instances? Create that many sessions through the API; Browserbase handles scheduling, infrastructure, cleanup, and lifecycle.
Observability. A Session Inspector / Live View layer lets you watch sessions in real time and replay them.
Why AI agents use it
For a browser-based agent, the browser is the "hands." An assistant booking a flight might prompt "Go to Expedia," let Browserbase launch Chrome, have Playwright execute actions, observe the page, decide the next action, click Search, and continue. The loop repeats until the task is done.
How Browserbase differs from Mobilerun
The biggest distinction is the environment each one automates. Browserbase only ever sees what's inside Chrome. Mobilerun controls the whole mobile device.
Browserbase's view of the world
Browserbase runs Chrome in the cloud, so it operates entirely within the browser: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM. An agent can click buttons, fill forms, read page content, execute JavaScript, take screenshots, and upload or download files. It cannot install native apps, open WhatsApp, receive an SMS, grant Android permissions, toggle Wi-Fi, open device Settings, or test push notifications - all of that happens at the device/OS level, outside the browser. (For SMS-based 2FA, the workaround is a human in the loop via Session Live View, not Browserbase reading the text itself.)
Mobilerun’s view of the world
Mobilerun controls the entire device including the home screen, Chrome, the Play Store, WhatsApp, Settings, Camera, Files, notifications, native apps, and system UI. An agent can move freely between all of them as part of a single workflow.
A concrete example
A workflow that crosses app boundaries shows the gap clearly:
Open Play Store → Install an app → Grant permissions → Open Gmail → Retrieve OTP → Switch back to the app →Verify account → Enable notifications → Parse the screen data
Browserbase can't run this end to end, because much of it happens outside Chrome. Mobilerun is designed exactly for it.
By contrast, a typical Browserbase agent stays entirely inside Chrome, opens LinkedIn, searches for a company, extracts employee names, and downloads a CSV.
Mobilerun agent is device-first, installing TikTok, creating an account, receiving an OTP, complete onboarding, upload a video, switch to Photos, edit media, return to TikTok, and publish, spanning multiple apps.
Underlying automation model
Browserbase typically relies on browser automation protocols such as the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), which expose the browser's internal structure i.e. DOM, network events, console logs.
Mobilerun operates at the mobile device level. Rather than being limited to a browser's DOM, it interacts with the rendered UI across native apps, web views, and system screens, letting an agent automate complete mobile experiences.
Scaling
Both platforms are built for many concurrent sessions, but they scale different resources. Browserbase scales hundreds or thousands of browser instances. Mobilerun scales fleets of real mobile devices or cloud-connected phones.
When to use which
Choose Browserbase when your workflow lives entirely in a web browser: large-scale web scraping, browser-based AI agents, end-to-end web testing, form automation, data extraction, or browser workflows that need to scale across many concurrent sessions.
Choose Mobilerun when you need to automate Android or iPhone apps, your workflow crosses multiple apps, you need device features like notifications, permissions, camera, or file storage, or you're testing and operating mobile apps end to end.
If your automation needs to touch native mobile apps, device settings, notifications, cameras, GPS, or other operating-system features, a mobile automation platform is the better fit.
Can they complement each other?
Yes. They're more complementary than competitive, unless the task is strictly browser automation. In some architectures they handle different parts of the same workflow. A backend AI agent might use Browserbase to gather information from websites while Mobilerun handles the mobile portion: installing an app, signing in with an OTP, validating push notifications, or completing an in-app purchase flow.
The takeaway is the one we started with. Browserbase gives your agent a browser; Mobilerun gives it a phone. Pick based on where the work actually happens.
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