Agentic Index
Airtop vs Kernel (2026)
Both vendors last verified
Two cloud browser platforms for agents that solve adjacent problems. That verdict is the Agentic Index coverage score, graded from each vendor's own published materials.
Airtop compiles plain English workflows into deterministic agents that run on schedules or triggers, self heal broken runs, persist authenticated profiles and support live human takeover. Kernel is browsers as a service with millisecond spin ups, persistent session state, live take control views and replays, any framework support plus an MCP server and an agent runtime that turns agents into HTTPS endpoints, with a free Developer plan carrying $5 of usage credits a month. Airtop gives you the agent. Kernel gives you the substrate to run yours on.
On the Agentic Index agent infrastructure ranking, neither Airtop nor Kernel clears the bar, which asks for all five production contract capabilities documented in full. Airtop documents one of the five in full; Kernel does not document model flexibility and routing in full, nor testing, debugging and optimization. 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. Airtop and Kernel 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 Airtop if
- You want workflows described in plain English rather than written in code.
- Self healing on broken runs is the operational property that makes this survivable.
- Scheduled and triggered runs are how you work.
Choose Kernel if
- You already have agents and need infrastructure, not another agent builder.
- Millisecond spin ups matter because your workload is bursty.
- Turning agents into HTTPS endpoints fits the architecture you are building.
| Feature | A Airtop |
K Kernel |
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| 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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AirtopIntegrations & Tool Calling Agents sync data to and from core systems through pre built integrations, including HubSpot, Google Ads, Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, Airtable, social platforms and B2B enrichment data. They call any API with keys held in the Airtop vault with no connector required, and log in to applications that have no API. Make, n8n, Zapier, Claude Code and Codex connections are listed. SourceAirtop, airtop.airead 2026-10-05 |
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KernelIntegrations & Tool Calling A named integration catalog puts a Kernel browser inside Browser Use, Stagehand, the Claude Agent SDK and Claude Code, the Vercel AI SDK, Replit, Hermes Agent and computer use models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Gemini. Agents can also act with authentication. Managed Auth logs agents in to outside sites with profiles the user approves, vaults fill stored credentials without exposing them, and wallet integrations with Stripe Link and Agentcard let agents pay. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/integrations/overviewread 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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AirtopWorkflow Orchestration Agent Builder compiles a plain English description into a deterministic multi step agent (log in, fill forms, collect data, sync to other systems) that is deployed and rerun, and Mark plans the sequencing and workflow logic across several agents. Compiled agents become reusable code. Mark, built for marketers, also builds the agents themselves, and Airtop can add web automation to agents a customer already runs in Claude, n8n, Make or Codex. SourceAirtop, airtop.airead 2026-10-05 |
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KernelWorkflow Orchestration Customer code runs on Kernel as apps with named actions, invoked synchronously or asynchronously with status streaming, and browser pools keep browsers ready for repeated work. The workflow logic itself lives in the customer's agent, and there is no workflow model for multi step or multi agent work. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/apps/invokeread 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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AirtopTriggers & Channel Coverage Deployed agents run on a schedule or on triggers, and templates show agents watching Slack channels, Reddit, X and Google Maps for new items. Runs also start from the API, Make, n8n and Zapier. A window can also monitor a page and act once a condition is met. SourceAirtop, airtop.ai and docs.airtop.ai monitoring a pageread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelTriggers & Channel Coverage Work starts when a caller creates a browser or invokes a deployed app through the API, SDKs or CLI, synchronously or asynchronously. No schedule, event or inbound webhook of Kernel's own starts agent work. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/apps/invokeread 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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AirtopKnowledge Grounding & RAG Agents query and scrape the page they are on at run time, with LLM help for smart scraping and questions about the page. Airtop keeps no store of the customer's own knowledge for agents to search. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai querying a page and smart scrapingread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelKnowledge Grounding & RAG There is no knowledge grounding or retrieval layer. Kernel supplies browsers and their runtime, and the pages the agent reads are web work done at run time. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/llms.txtread 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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AirtopMemory & State Persistence Persistent sessions and saved profiles keep cookies and logins for reuse across runs. The browser applies that state, and there is no stated memory the agent reads as context from one run to the next. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai saving a profileread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelMemory & State Persistence Browser profiles save cookies and logins for reuse, Managed Auth keeps sessions signed in, and standby mode keeps a browser ready to resume. Each is browser state loaded or kept for the next session, not a memory the agent reads to decide. There is no memory with a stated scope and lifetime. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/browsers/profilesread 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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AirtopHuman Oversight & Guardrails Live View hands real time interactive control of the agent's browser to a person for authentication, training and human in the loop steps, so a person can take over. There is no approval step that holds an action until a person confirms it. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai creating a live viewread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelHuman Oversight & Guardrails Purchases wait for approval. Wallet integrations supply hosted purchase approval, and for Agentcard, Kernel holds a recognized checkout request for approval before it executes. Managed Auth sends logins through a hosted page where the user approves and enters credentials or MFA, and a live view with read and write access lets a person take over a running browser. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/browsers/paymentsread 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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AirtopSecurity, Identity & Governance Airtop reports SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA, with the reports available on request and on the Enterprise plan, and a trust center sits at trust.airtop.ai. There is no stated access model, SSO or roles. Each session runs in its own encrypted environment, and when Airtop uses a third party LLM, its contracts bar the provider from training on customer data. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai FAQ and airtop.airead 2026-10-05 |
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KernelSecurity, Identity & Governance Projects isolate browsers, profiles, credentials and deployments, API keys are scoped to the org or project with expiry and rotation, and Enterprise adds single sign on. Kernel holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, PCI DSS and ISO 27001 attestations, with reports on request through trust.kernel.sh, and GDPR is in progress. Sourcekernel.sh/securityread 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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AirtopObservability & Auditability Sessions can be recorded and replayed, DevTools open on a live session for debugging, and the platform shows every action, log and result of a run in real time. Usage is tracked in credits across AI calls, browser CPU time and proxy bandwidth. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai recording a session, debugging a session and FAQread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelObservability & Auditability A live view, session replays with retention by plan, browser telemetry that can be read or streamed and exported to OTLP destinations, and app logs show what ran. Organization audit logs record every authenticated API request and are kept for one year, with search, download and continuous S3 export on higher plans. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/info/audit-logsread 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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AirtopDeployment & Data Residency Airtop runs as a hosted cloud with each session in its own encrypted environment. It offers no region choice, VPC, on premises or self hosted option, and the isolation of each session protects data without changing where Airtop runs. Customers sign in at portal.airtop.ai, and a free trial is available. SourceAirtop, airtop.ai and docs.airtop.ai FAQread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelDeployment & Data Residency A region is chosen per browser or browser pool from us-east, eu-west and ap-southeast on Start-Up and Enterprise plans, with us-east the default. Kernel frames the choice as one of latency, and regional support for apps and invocations is not yet available. Enterprise adds zero data retention, and private networking routes browser traffic to private services, which is connectivity, not deployment. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/browsers/regionsread 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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AirtopPrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs A templates library holds ready automations and agents, including Generate Leads from New Hires, Customer Support Analyst, The Google Review Responder, The Hiring Intent Agent and Web Contact Info Finder, each doing its own job, plus recipes in the docs. Sourceairtop.ai/templatesread 2026-09-27 |
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KernelPrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Kernel ships agent skills, including Bot Detection, Browser Profiles, Kernel Auth and Create Site Skills, with a fuller list on skills.sh. They teach the customer's own agent to use Kernel and to turn a verified workflow into a site skill. These are starting points a developer builds from, not a catalog of agents a customer adopts. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/skills/overviewread 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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AirtopModel Flexibility & Routing Airtop uses LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google plus custom fine tuned models and may switch or fail over between them by workload. Airtop does that routing itself, and the customer does not pick the model. Usage is billed in Airtop credits, not provider tokens, because several providers sit behind it. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai FAQread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelModel Flexibility & Routing The model lives in the customer's agent, not in Kernel. The computer use guides for Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenAGI, Tzafon and Yutori show those agents calling a Kernel browser. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/integrations/computer-use/overviewread 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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AirtopAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility A documented REST API with an OpenAPI 3.1 specification covers sessions, windows (click, type, query, scrape, monitor), automations, profiles and files, with TypeScript and Python SDKs and Puppeteer, Playwright and Selenium integration. An MCP server connects Airtop to Claude Code and Cursor, and batch operations run many tasks at once. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai API reference and llms.txtread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Outside code calls Kernel through an API described by an OpenAPI 3.1 specification at kernel.sh/openapi.json, with an API reference at api.onkernel.com. There are official TypeScript, Python and Go SDKs, a CLI, and a hosted MCP server at mcp.onkernel.com over streamable HTTP with OAuth metadata. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/reference/mcp-serverread 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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AirtopTesting, Debugging & Optimization Agent Builder builds and tests an automation before it is compiled, and broken runs heal themselves in production. There are no scored test cases or checks for customers to run on their own agents, and recordings and DevTools serve debugging. Airtop says compiled agents are up to 100 times more efficient to run than uncompiled LLM agents. SourceAirtop, airtop.ai and docs.airtop.ai debugging a sessionread 2026-10-05 |
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KernelTesting, Debugging & Optimization Replays, telemetry, a browser REPL and debugging skills let developers inspect what an agent saw and did after a run. That is debugging, and there is no evaluation harness, scored test cases or quality gate. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/browsers/replaysread 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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AirtopBrowser & Computer Use Agents drive Airtop's hosted cloud browsers, clicking, typing, hovering, scrolling, filling forms and handling files, captchas, proxies and Chrome extensions, on sites behind logins and in legacy portals. They can watch a page until a condition is met, fill forms with AI help and send traffic through residential proxies. SourceAirtop, docs.airtop.ai llms.txt and airtop.airead 2026-10-05 |
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KernelBrowser & Computer Use Kernel runs isolated cloud Chromium browsers that agents drive through a computer controls API (click, drag, type, scroll, screenshots), Playwright execution, CDP or WebDriver BiDi, in headless, headful or GPU modes, with stealth, proxies and CAPTCHA handling. Sourcekernel.sh/docs/browsers/computer-controlsread 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 Airtop |
K Kernel |
|---|---|---|
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Entry price Lowest public entry point |
Free with 1,000 credits a month plus a 10,000 credit bonus. Starter from $29 a month, Professional from $189 and Enterprise from $558. Custom is quoted. | Developer free plus usage ($5 credits a month); Hobbyist $30 a month plus usage; Start-Up $200 plus usage; 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 |
A monthly or annual plan price with a credit allowance attached. Sessions, proxies and AI calls draw the credits down, and each plan steps up to larger credit allowances. | monthly plan plus per second browser usage |
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Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
Medium variable cost | Medium variable cost |
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Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
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Free tierTrial
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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.
Kernel
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· Browser/computer use
Config Registry, a new Kernel API, tells an agent which browser and proxy settings get through to a target website, with evidence on success rate, number of trials and when each setting was last tested.
Source -
· Pricing / packaging
Agents can now buy a Kernel browser session on their own through the Machine Payments Protocol.
Source
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