Buster captcha solver and hCaptcha.

Buster: Captcha Solver for Humans is a free, open-source browser extension that solves reCAPTCHA's audio challenge. NoneCap is an hCaptcha solver: a Chrome extension and an API. This page sets out what Buster does and does not do, quoted from its own README, store pages, wiki and issue tracker as of November 2026, and where NoneCap fits when the captcha in front of you is hCaptcha. One disclosure: this site is NoneCap.

What Buster does

Buster's README puts it in two sentences: "Buster is a browser extension which helps you to solve difficult CAPTCHAs by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges using speech recognition. Challenges are solved by clicking on the extension button at the bottom of the reCAPTCHA widget." In practice:

• It works on reCAPTCHA. You click the Buster button at the bottom of the widget and it completes the audio challenge. Its Firefox listing says it "sends the audio challenge to the configured speech recognition service when you request to solve a challenge".
• You choose that service in its options: a managed one, or your own key for Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, IBM Watson Speech to Text, Microsoft Azure Speech to Text or Wit.ai.
• An optional client app for Windows, Linux and macOS "enables you to simulate user interactions and improves the success rate of the extension", per the README.
• It is free under the GPL-3.0 license, and its author, Armin Sebastian, funds it through donations. Version 3.4.0 shipped in June 2026.
• Its store listing is upfront about limits: "It is not guaranteed that challenges are always solved, the limitations of the technology need to be considered."

On November 2, 2026 the Chrome Web Store listed it at 700,000 users and 3.8 out of 5 from 925 ratings, and Firefox Add-ons at about 36,000 daily users. It is also on Edge Add-ons and Opera add-ons.

When Buster can't help

Buster needs reCAPTCHA to serve the audio challenge, and reCAPTCHA does not always serve it. Its Firefox listing warns: "Solving more than a couple of reCAPTCHA challenges a day may lead to a temporary block, regardless of your use of the extension." That block shows up as "Your computer or network may be sending automated queries". Its wiki page on the block says: "If you cannot access the audio challenge by clicking on the headphone button, the extension won't be able to solve the challenge either." It suggests the client app, clearing your browsing data, a different IP address, or waiting a couple of days, and ends: "Ultimately, there is no reliable way to bypass a temporary block".

Buster and hCaptcha

Buster is a reCAPTCHA tool. Its README, store pages and options describe reCAPTCHA only, and its code runs in reCAPTCHA's own frames. Users have asked for hCaptcha since 2020. The request that stays open is issue #319, "Support hCaptcha", filed in September 2021, and later hCaptcha requests were closed and pointed to it. The maintainer's note there in March 2022: "The main goal here is to find solutions that involve object recognition."

That note matters because Buster's method needs an audio challenge, and hCaptcha's accessibility page lists two options, neither of them audio: a text-based Accessibility Challenge that each site can choose to enable, and an accessibility sign-up that sets a cookie. Asked about audio, it says: "We are thus less enthusiastic about this approach vs. avoiding the challenge altogether, but will consider it if there is demand from the a11y community." The challenges most people see are visual: image grids, drag puzzles and prompts to click a spot on an image. Our accessibility alternatives guide covers what is left of the cookie route.

Buster vs the NoneCap extension

Where NoneCap fits

NoneCap handles hCaptcha only, in the browser or from code. In Chrome, the NoneCap extension solves hCaptcha image grids, drag puzzles and point-on-image challenges as they appear, without a click from you. It gives 100 free solves a day with no account, and with a NoneCap API key in its options it solves on your account balance. It sends only what the challenge needs, never a screenshot or the page around it. Buster can stay installed for reCAPTCHA.

Add NoneCap to Chrome →

If the hCaptcha sits in front of a script, a scraper or a browser you automate, the API takes the sitekey and page URL and returns an hCaptcha token for your code to submit with the form, regular, invisible and Enterprise rqdata sitekeys included.

curl "https://api.nonecap.com/v1/solves?wait=90" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NONECAP_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type":    "hcaptcha",
    "sitekey": "f5ab1c2d-7e8f-4a9b-b1c2-d3e4f5a6b7c8",
    "url":     "https://target.example/login"
  }'

{
  "id": "solve_01HQF7K3JKWZX",
  "object": "solve",
  "type": "hcaptcha",
  "status": "solved",
  "token": "P1_eyJ0eXAi...UV8w",
  "credits_charged": 1
}

With ?wait=N the request stays open for up to 90 seconds and the token usually comes back in that response. The API reference has the full solve object and examples in cURL, Node, Python and Go. Pricing is $0.20 to $0.50 per 1,000 credits, from 1 credit per challenge round, and failed solves are never charged; new accounts get 1,300 credits with no card.

Which one to use

If you hit reCAPTCHA now and then and want a free, open-source helper, Buster is built for that, as long as reCAPTCHA keeps serving you the audio challenge. If the captcha is hCaptcha, Buster's docs don't cover it: the NoneCap extension handles it in Chrome with 100 free solves a day, and the API handles it from code.