Agentic Index
AgentQL vs Lightpanda (2026)
Both vendors last verified
Two low level components of the agent browser stack, solving adjacent problems. That verdict is the Agentic Index coverage score, graded from each vendor's own published materials.
AgentQL is a self healing query language for the web, with natural language selectors that find elements by meaning, survive layout changes and return structured data or Playwright locators, with SDKs, a REST API and an MCP server. Lightpanda is a headless browser engine written from scratch in Zig, roughly eleven times faster and nine times lighter than headless Chrome, compatible with Playwright and Puppeteer, open source with a managed cloud, currently in beta. AgentQL is what your agent asks with. Lightpanda is what it runs on, and many stacks want both.
On the Agentic Index agent infrastructure ranking, neither AgentQL nor Lightpanda clears the bar, which asks for all five production contract capabilities documented in full. AgentQL documents one of the five in full; Lightpanda documents two of the five in full. 33 of the 186 vendors in the lane clear it. See the agent infrastructure ranking
This comparison is published by Agentic Index, an independent agentic AI vendor research platform. AgentQL and Lightpanda are each graded against the same 14 capability Agentic Index taxonomy, from the vendor's own public materials under the Agentic Index verification standard, alongside 1,084 researched vendors. No vendor pays for placement and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Choose AgentQL if
- Selectors breaking on every layout change is your actual maintenance burden.
- Selectors that find elements by meaning and survive layout changes are the capability you need.
- An MCP server means the selector layer reaches your agents directly.
Choose Lightpanda if
- Browser cost and speed at volume is the constraint, and eleven times faster is the answer.
- Open source with a drop in managed cloud gives you both control and convenience.
- Playwright and Puppeteer compatibility means no rewrite to adopt it.
| Feature | A AgentQL |
L Lightpanda |
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
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Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
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AgentQLIntegrations & Tool Calling The LangChain, LlamaIndex, Dify, Langflow, Google ADK, Zapier and MCP integrations run the other way, exposing AgentQL as a tool inside other agents. Logging into websites is handled as browser work. AgentQL names no connector catalog, custom tools or authenticated actions for working in outside systems. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/integrationsread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaIntegrations & Tool Calling Guides connect Lightpanda to Stagehand, Hermes Agent, Playwright, Puppeteer, chromedp and Selenium, all frameworks that drive the browser. The agent's own tools are browser tools plus web search. Lightpanda names no authenticated action route, credential handling or connector for acting in outside systems. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/guides/use-stagehandread 2026-09-27 |
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Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
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AgentQLWorkflow Orchestration As a query and selector layer, AgentQL leaves multi step logic to the customer's Playwright scripts or agent framework. A scheduled workflow runs one query over a list of URLs. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/scraping/schedulingread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaWorkflow Orchestration The built in agent carries out multi step browsing tasks and can save a session as a PandaScript, a deterministic JavaScript automation with loops and functions that Lightpanda replays without an LLM. Lightpanda describes no multi agent execution and no workflow model beyond a single script. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/pandascriptread 2026-09-27 |
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Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
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AgentQLTriggers & Channel Coverage The Dev Portal scheduler runs scraping workflows on their own at a set time of day, week or month, with Run Now and pause controls. On demand runs come from the SDKs and REST API. The scheduler is experimental and capped at 2 workflows, 5 URLs and 10 runs per workflow. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/scraping/schedulingread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaTriggers & Channel Coverage Work starts when a caller connects over CDP, MCP or the HTTP API, or when a user runs the agent or a PandaScript from the command line. Lightpanda names no schedule, event or inbound trigger of its own. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/reference/cliread 2026-09-27 |
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| Knowledge & context | ||
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Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
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AgentQLKnowledge Grounding & RAG The page being queried is read at run time, and AgentQL extracts from PDFs and images per call. AgentQL names no retrieval layer over the customer's own knowledge. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/concepts/main-conceptsread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaKnowledge Grounding & RAG The agent extracts pages and searches the web at run time. Lightpanda names no knowledge grounding or retrieval layer. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/agentread 2026-09-27 |
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Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
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AgentQLMemory & State Persistence Browser state persists. Cached credentials are saved as cookies and local storage with storage_state, and remote sessions stay alive for reconnect with shutdown_mode. AgentQL names no memory that queries read as context. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/logging-into-sites/caching-user-credentialsread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaMemory & State Persistence PandaScript variables last for one script run, and an MCP session keeps its page loaded between calls. The agent remembers the last chosen provider for each directory as a setting. Lightpanda names no memory that the agent reads across runs. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/pandascriptread 2026-09-27 |
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| Control & trust | ||
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Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
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AgentQLHuman Oversight & Guardrails Remote sessions offer a streaming URL for watching the page, and every action is taken by the customer's own script. AgentQL names no approval, takeover or guardrail mechanism. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/browser/remote-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaHuman Oversight & Guardrails The customer can set --obey_robots so every request the browser makes, including for an agent driving it, is checked against the site's robots.txt and blocked where disallowed. This lets the customer limit what the agent may do. Lightpanda names no approval step before an agent action commits. Sourcelightpanda.io/blog/posts/robotstxt-supportread 2026-09-27 |
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Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
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AgentQLSecurity, Identity & Governance API keys control access to AgentQL, and it names no other access model, SSO or attestation. TinyFish states ISO 27001, SSO and role based access for its own TinyFish platform, not for AgentQL. Sourceagentql.com/pricingread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaSecurity, Identity & Governance Access to Lightpanda Cloud runs on a single API token per account, with no roles, SSO or team access model. No attestation or trust page is published. The Enterprise plan offers support for advanced security needs without naming them. Sourcelightpanda.io/pricingread 2026-09-27 |
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Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
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AgentQLObservability & Auditability Scheduled workflows show each job's status, the query used, the scraped data and an optional screenshot of the page at run time. Remote sessions stream the live page. AgentQL names no audit trail or run trace that explains why a step happened. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/scraping/schedulingread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaObservability & Auditability The Lightpanda Cloud console lists recent sessions with their logs, and the local binary writes request, navigation and resource logs at a chosen level to stderr. Lightpanda names no replay, trace export or audit trail of agent actions. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/run-on-lightpanda-cloud/getting-startedread 2026-09-27 |
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Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
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AgentQLDeployment & Data Residency The Enterprise plan offers a fully managed dedicated cloud environment, and on premise deployment is available. No region list is published. Sourceagentql.com/pricingread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaDeployment & Data Residency The same engine runs as a self hosted binary on the customer's own machines or infrastructure, where pages and data never reach Lightpanda, or on Lightpanda Cloud with euwest and uswest endpoints the customer picks. Enterprise offers on premises or private cloud deployment. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/core-concepts/local-vs-cloudread 2026-09-27 |
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| Solution readiness | ||
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Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
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AgentQLPrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Example scripts in Python and JavaScript and Playground query suggestions help with onboarding. The Enterprise plan offers ready to use datasets. AgentQL names no library of prebuilt agents, templates or packs. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/examplesread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaPrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs PandaScripts are written or saved by the customer, and Lightpanda names no catalog of prebuilt agents, templates or scripts. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/pandascriptread 2026-09-27 |
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| Platform extensibility | ||
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Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
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AgentQLModel Flexibility & Routing Each query is routed across several public LLMs, among them GPT-4, Llama and Gemini, plus a proprietary model. AgentQL's infrastructure decides which to use by task complexity. The customer chooses only between fast and standard mode. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/concepts/under-the-hoodread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaModel Flexibility & Routing The built in agent runs on the provider the customer chooses, set by API key, --provider flag or /provider command. The choices are Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Hugging Face, Mistral, OpenRouter, OrcaRouter and the Vercel AI Gateway, or a local model through Ollama or llama.cpp. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/agentread 2026-09-27 |
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APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
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AgentQLAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Python and JavaScript SDKs with API references, a REST API for queries and remote browser sessions, and an npm MCP server authenticated with the API key expose AgentQL to developers and agents. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/rest-api/api-referenceread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Developers can call an HTTP API (POST /api/fetch with a bearer token), a Python SDK, a CLI and a CDP server. A native MCP server over stdio or HTTP offers navigation, extraction, interaction and session tools that drive Lightpanda's own browser sessions, and it is also exposed on Lightpanda Cloud with a token. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/reference/mcp-toolsread 2026-09-27 |
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Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
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AgentQLTesting, Debugging & Optimization The Debugger Chrome extension and the Playground run a query against a live page and highlight what it returns, so a developer can try and refine queries before use. AgentQL names no scored test cases, test harness or quality gate. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/debugger-extensionread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaTesting, Debugging & Optimization Published benchmarks measure the engine's speed and memory use, and Lightpanda names no evaluation harness, test cases or quality gate for agents. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/core-concepts/benchmarksread 2026-09-27 |
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| Specialist automation | ||
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Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
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AgentQLBrowser & Computer Use Queries return Playwright locators that fill and submit forms, close modals and page through results on any site, including logged in pages. AgentQL also runs hosted remote browser sessions with CDP access, stealth and the TinyFish Browser profile. Sourcedocs.agentql.com/browser/remote-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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LightpandaBrowser & Computer Use Lightpanda is its own headless browser engine, written in Zig with V8, that runs JavaScript and the DOM. Agents drive it over CDP or WebDriver BiDi (Playwright, Puppeteer, chromedp), through its MCP server, or with the built in agent's goto, click, fill and extract tools, locally or on Lightpanda Cloud. It skips visual rendering, so there are no screenshots. Sourcelightpanda.io/docs/usage/agentread 2026-09-27 |
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Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing | A AgentQL |
L Lightpanda |
|---|---|---|
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Entry price Lowest public entry point |
Free trial (300 API calls); Starter $0 a month, pay as you go at $0.02 a call; Professional $99 a month; Enterprise custom | Open source engine free to self host; Cloud Explorer free (10 browser hours a month); Builder $19 a month (300 hours, then $0.08 an hour); Enterprise custom |
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Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public, exact | Public, exact |
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Billing Primary billing axis |
not captured | browser hours metered by the second |
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Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
Medium variable cost | Low variable cost |
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Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
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Free tier
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Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Self-serve |
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Pricing verified When this pricing was last checked |
Product updates
Newest first, each linked to its source.
Lightpanda
-
· Browser/computer use
Lightpanda's headless browser for AI agents reached version 1.0 and dropped its beta label, after passing about 80% of the Web Platform Tests that Chrome passes.
Source
Lightpanda is in beta, and its Playwright and Puppeteer support does not yet match headless Chrome feature for feature.
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