OpenClaw Browser Finishes Most Tasks in 100-Task Live-Web Benchmark, But at 3.5x the Cost
A developer ran OpenClaw's browser against four other agent setups on 100 hard live-web tasks from Online-Mind2Web. OpenClaw finished the most tasks — 35 — but was also the slowest and the most expensive, costing $4.80 against $0.65 for the cheapest rival.
The setup
Every setup used Claude Haiku 5.5, headed Chrome, the same prompts, server and IP. The limit was 10 minutes per task, with one attempt per task.
Results (finished / median time / total cost)
- OpenClaw: 35, 141s, $4.80
- 5dive (Claude Code): 32, 105s, $1.39
- Claude in Chrome: 29, 67s, $0.91 (estimate — runs on a subscription)
- 5dive (pi): 29, 105s, $0.65
- Hermes: 18, 86s, $0.72
The author notes the differences among the top setups weren't statistically significant in his paired tests.
Why the gaps
- Hermes stops sooner: 11.6 steps per task vs 23.5 for OpenClaw. Excluding tasks it got blocked on, Hermes still finished 22% vs 45% for OpenClaw.
- Batching: OpenClaw's batching was on by default, and its agent used it in 5 of the 100 tasks.
- Token re-reads: In smaller tests, each OpenClaw call re-read 72K tokens, against 43K for Claude Code and 4.5K for pi.
- Speed: Claude in Chrome was fastest at 67s per task — its steps took 4s vs 8–10s for the others. The author guesses they wait for each page to settle and double-check every click.
- Bot walls: Each setup hit a bot wall on 20–26 of the 100 tasks because server-side agents get a datacenter IP.
How the browsers differ
Claude in Chrome drives your own Chrome through Anthropic's extension. 5dive runs Chrome on the agent's own server and stays logged in; when a site throws a robot check, the agent sends you a one-time link to that live window so you can solve it and let it carry on.
Limitations the author flags
- Cheap model, one attempt per live task.
- The agents built the test rig; the judge used Haiku 5.5, so scores don't compare to the benchmark's leaderboard.
- Claude in Chrome and Hermes ran a day or two after the others, and live sites change.
- The author built the 5dive browser, so he's not neutral.
He says he'd rerun OpenClaw with any setting its users think cuts the calls. Raw results are in a public gist, and 5dive is open source under MIT.
📖 Read the full source: r/openclaw
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