Browser-Use: AI Agents That Actually Use the Web

One of the most practical AI agent capabilities is web automation—letting an LLM navigate websites, fill forms, extract data, and complete tasks that would otherwise require human clicking.

Browser-Use is an open-source library that makes this surprisingly straightforward.

The Problem

Most AI agents can generate text, call APIs, and reason about data. But the web is built for humans clicking around in browsers. There’s a gap between “AI can think” and “AI can do things online.”

Browser-Use bridges that gap by giving LLMs direct browser control with semantic understanding of what’s on screen.

How It Works

from browser_use import Agent, Browser, ChatBrowserUse
import asyncio

async def example():
    browser = Browser()
    llm = ChatBrowserUse()
    
    agent = Agent(
        task="Find the top post on Hacker News",
        llm=llm,
        browser=browser,
    )
    
    history = await agent.run()
    return history

asyncio.run(example())

The agent:

1. Opens a browser
2. Understands clickable elements semantically
3. Plans actions to complete the task
4. Executes clicks, typing, scrolling
5. Returns results

Key Features

Semantic element understanding — The agent doesn’t just see pixels. It understands “this is a search box” or “this is a submit button.”

Persistent sessions — Keep the browser open across multiple tasks, maintaining login state and context.

Cloud deployment — Run browsers in sandboxes for production workloads without managing infrastructure.

CLI for quick tasks — Run one-off automations directly from the terminal:

browser-use open https://example.com
browser-use state    # See clickable elements
browser-use click 5  # Click element #5

Real Applications

• Data scraping that adapts when websites change
• Form filling for repetitive tasks
• Testing web applications with natural language specs
• Research across multiple sites simultaneously
• Monitoring pages for changes

My Take

Web automation has existed for decades (Selenium, Puppeteer, Playwright), but Browser-Use adds the intelligence layer that makes it actually useful for complex tasks. Instead of brittle CSS selectors, you describe what you want in plain English.

The cloud offering also solves a real pain point—running headless browsers in production is surprisingly annoying. Having it managed makes sense for production workloads.

Links:

• GitHub
• Documentation
• Cloud