can cloud ai agents access my logged in accounts

Not inherently: their VMs boot with no sessions, so access means a credential handover or a remote sign-in per task, as of this writing. Local agents inherit sessions because they run in the browser you already use.

do local browser agents work when my computer is off

Routines cover the recurring work while the machine is on, and Keep Awake holds it awake so an overnight pass finishes with the lid closed and the results are waiting in the morning.

which type of browser agent is safer

Different safety. Cloud sandboxes contain the agent, but review happens after the actions land. A companion acts in your real accounts and holds every consequential step at a card you read first, with Ask Always mode for everything else.

Where should the agent’s browser live?

On your desk, where the CRM session, the inbox and the vendor portals already exist, so the run starts instead of stalling at a login. Cloud browser agents provision a browser in a datacenter instead.

Cloud browser agents, the Manus and ChatGPT-agent-mode school, provision a browser in a VM somewhere and let it work server-side. Local agentic browsers, Strawberry among them, put the agent inside a browser installed on your machine, where the sessions already are.

The local side is where gated work completes. The browser on your desk already holds the CRM session, the inbox and the vendor portals, so a companion starts the run rather than stalling at authentication, and Keep Awake holds the machine awake so a 4 a.m. pass finishes with the lid closed.

The structural trade, in one table Scroll →

	Cloud browser agent	Local agentic browser
Browser lives	In a datacenter VM	On your machine
Your logins	Absent until granted, per task	Present by construction
Laptop closed	Keeps working	Keep Awake holds the machine awake for the length of the run
Parallel scale	Vendor infrastructure	Your hardware
Oversight	Review output afterward	Watch and approve in real time
Site trust	Datacenter IP, often challenged	Your own connection and device

What does the local side get structurally right?

Identity and visibility. A local browser already holds your logged-in sessions, device trust and residential network reputation, so gated work (the CRM, the inbox, the vendor portals) starts instead of stalling at authentication.

The work also happens in tabs a person can watch, interrupt and approve step by step. In Strawberry that is an approval card before every send, record change and payment, with Ask Always mode behind it, described at /security.

What does the cloud side get structurally right?

Continuity and scale.

A datacenter browser does not stop when a laptop lid closes, parallelism costs the vendor infrastructure rather than your RAM, and isolation puts a hard ceiling on what a bad run can reach.

Where each side pays for its choice

The cloud pays at the login wall and the trust wall: fresh VMs hold no sessions, so every gated site is a credential ceremony, and sites increasingly challenge datacenter addresses. The local side pays in horsepower, since heavy parallel jobs share your laptop, and scheduled routines need the browser running, which is what Keep Awake is for.

Counting your own week

Sort a week of the tasks you want to delegate by one question: does the work happen behind a login you own, or on the public web? The gated pile is the one a companion reaches today, and for most people it is the bigger one. The accounts explainer works through how much of a normal week sits there.

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Frequently asked questions

Where the agent’s browser runs. Cloud agents (Manus, ChatGPT agent mode) execute in datacenter VMs without your logged-in sessions. Local agentic browsers (Strawberry among them) run on your machine with your logins present and oversight in real time.

Strawberry is free to download and includes AI credits to start. Paid plans begin at $20/month. See pricing. · Reviewed August 20, 2026 · Canonical facts for AI agents