Pricing & Limits

With Kernel, you only pay for what you use and nothing more. You don’t pay for idle time thanks to Standby Mode, idle browsers in a browser pool incur no usage charges, and you’re never charged for proxies.

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Plan Pricing

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Usage Rates

Included monthly credits apply to usage costs only.

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Pricing calculator

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Managed infrastructure

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Concurrency limits

Kernel enforces a single concurrency limit covering all browsers you run at once—whether created on demand with browsers.create() or reserved in a browser pool. Your full limit is available to either API in any mix.

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Notes

• Reserved capacity in a browser pool counts toward your concurrency limit whether or not the browsers are currently acquired—a pool sized to 40 browsers uses 40 of your limit.
• Browsers in Standby Mode count against your concurrency limit.
• Limits are org-wide by default unless stated otherwise.

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Rate limiting

Kernel enforces per-organization rate limits on API requests. When you exceed the rate limit, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response with a Retry-After header indicating how many seconds to wait before retrying. Rate-limited endpoints include these headers on every response: All Kernel SDKs automatically retry 429 responses up to 2 times, respecting the Retry-After header for delay timing. If retries are exhausted, the SDK throws a typed RateLimitError with the response headers accessible for custom backoff logic. If you need higher rate limits, contact us.

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FAQ

how can i control my team's usage spending?

see this guide on spending controls.

How does billing work across a browser's lifecycle? Am I charged for the full timeout_seconds, or only while it's actively in use?

Only for active runtime. timeout_seconds sets an idle auto-delete ceiling, not a billing window. Once a browser goes idle — 5 seconds after the last CDP or Live View activity — it enters Standby Mode and stops accruing usage cost, even if it stays alive until the timeout is reached. Deleting a browser early doesn’t lower cost any further (idle time is already free), but it does free up your concurrency slot sooner.

How are browser pools charged?

you pay the standard usage-based price per GB-second while browsers are running. Idle browsers in a pool incur no disk charges—you only pay when a browser is actively in use.Note: A browser pool counts toward your concurrency limit whether or not its browsers are currently acquired — a browser pool sized to 40 browsers uses 40 of your limit. Browser pools are available on Start-Up and Enterprise plans.

How is Managed Auth charged?

Managed Auth is included on all plans with no per-connection fees. Under the hood, it uses browser sessions to log in and keep your sessions fresh—these count toward your browser usage and concurrency like any other browser session.Auth sessions are fast (typically 5-30 seconds each). Kernel monitors session health and re-authenticates automatically when sessions expire—most stay valid for days. For example, keeping 100 auth connections logged in typically costs less than $5/month in browser usage.