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BrowserType

BrowserType provides methods to launch a specific browser instance or connect to an existing one. The following is a typical example of using Playwright to drive automation:

const { chromium } = require('playwright');  // Or 'firefox' or 'webkit'.

(async () => {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  // other actions...
  await browser.close();
})();

browserType.connect(wsEndpoint[, options])​

Added in: v1.8
  • wsEndpoint <string> A browser websocket endpoint to connect to. Added in: v1.10#
  • options? <Object>
    • headers? <Object<string, string>> Additional HTTP headers to be sent with web socket connect request. Optional. Added in: v1.11#
    • logger? <Logger> Logger sink for Playwright logging. Optional. Added in: v1.14#
    • slowMo? <number> Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on. Defaults to 0. Added in: v1.10#
    • timeout? <number> Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the connection to be established. Defaults to 0 (no timeout). Added in: v1.10#
  • returns: <Promise<Browser>>#

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

browserType.connectOverCDP(endpointURL[, options])​

Added in: v1.9
  • endpointURL <string> A CDP websocket endpoint or http url to connect to. For example http://localhost:9222/ or ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/387adf4c-243f-4051-a181-46798f4a46f4. Added in: v1.11#
  • options? <Object>
    • endpointURL? <string> Deprecated, use the first argument instead. Optional. Added in: v1.14#
    • headers? <Object<string, string>> Additional HTTP headers to be sent with connect request. Optional. Added in: v1.11#
    • logger? <Logger> Logger sink for Playwright logging. Optional. Added in: v1.14#
    • slowMo? <number> Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on. Defaults to 0. Added in: v1.11#
    • timeout? <number> Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the connection to be established. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout. Added in: v1.11#
  • returns: <Promise<Browser>>#

This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

The default browser context is accessible via browser.contexts().

note

Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.

const browser = await playwright.chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222');
const defaultContext = browser.contexts()[0];
const page = defaultContext.pages()[0];

browserType.executablePath()​

Added in: v1.8

A path where Playwright expects to find a bundled browser executable.

browserType.launch([options])​

Added in: v1.8
  • options? <Object>
    • args? <Array<string>> Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.#
    • channel? <string> Browser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.#
    • chromiumSandbox? <boolean> Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.#
    • devtools? <boolean> Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the headless option will be set false.#
    • downloadsPath? <string> If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.#
    • env? <Object<string, string|number|boolean>> Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.#
    • executablePath? <string> Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.#
    • firefoxUserPrefs? <Object<string, string|number|boolean>> Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.#
    • handleSIGHUP? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.#
    • handleSIGINT? <boolean> Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.#
    • handleSIGTERM? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.#
    • headless? <boolean> Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the devtools option is true.#
    • ignoreDefaultArgs? <boolean|Array<string>> If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.#
    • logger? <Logger> Logger sink for Playwright logging.#
    • proxy? <Object> Network proxy settings.#
      • server <string> Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.
      • bypass? <string> Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".
      • username? <string> Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
      • password? <string> Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
    • slowMo? <number> Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.#
    • timeout? <number> Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.#
    • tracesDir? <string> If specified, traces are saved into this directory.#
  • returns: <Promise<Browser>>#

Returns the browser instance.

You can use ignoreDefaultArgs to filter out --mute-audio from default arguments:

const browser = await chromium.launch({  // Or 'firefox' or 'webkit'.
  ignoreDefaultArgs: ['--mute-audio']
});

Chromium-only Playwright can also be used to control the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, but it works best with the version of Chromium it is bundled with. There is no guarantee it will work with any other version. Use executablePath option with extreme caution.

If Google Chrome (rather than Chromium) is preferred, a Chrome Canary or Dev Channel build is suggested.

Stock browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are suitable for tests that require proprietary media codecs for video playback. See this article for other differences between Chromium and Chrome. This article describes some differences for Linux users.

browserType.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir[, options])​

Added in: v1.8
  • userDataDir <string> Path to a User Data Directory, which stores browser session data like cookies and local storage. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Note that Chromium's user data directory is the parent directory of the "Profile Path" seen at chrome://version. Pass an empty string to use a temporary directory instead.#
  • options? <Object>
    • acceptDownloads? <boolean> Whether to automatically download all the attachments. Defaults to true where all the downloads are accepted.#
    • args? <Array<string>> Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.#
    • baseURL? <string> When using page.goto(url[, options]), page.route(url, handler[, options]), page.waitForURL(url[, options]), page.waitForRequest(urlOrPredicate[, options]), or page.waitForResponse(urlOrPredicate[, options]) it takes the base URL in consideration by using the URL() constructor for building the corresponding URL. Examples:#
      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000 and navigating to /bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html
      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo/ and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/foo/bar.html
      • baseURL: http://localhost:3000/foo (without trailing slash) and navigating to ./bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.html
    • bypassCSP? <boolean> Toggles bypassing page's Content-Security-Policy.#
    • channel? <string> Browser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.#
    • chromiumSandbox? <boolean> Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.#
    • colorScheme? <"light"|"dark"|"no-preference"> Emulates 'prefers-colors-scheme' media feature, supported values are 'light', 'dark', 'no-preference'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Defaults to 'light'.#
    • deviceScaleFactor? <number> Specify device scale factor (can be thought of as dpr). Defaults to 1.#
    • devtools? <boolean> Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the headless option will be set false.#
    • downloadsPath? <string> If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.#
    • env? <Object<string, string|number|boolean>> Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.#
    • executablePath? <string> Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.#
    • extraHTTPHeaders? <Object<string, string>> An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request.#
    • forcedColors? <"active"|"none"> Emulates 'forced-colors' media feature, supported values are 'active', 'none'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Defaults to 'none'.#
    • geolocation? <Object>#
      • latitude <number> Latitude between -90 and 90.
      • longitude <number> Longitude between -180 and 180.
      • accuracy? <number> Non-negative accuracy value. Defaults to 0.
    • handleSIGHUP? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.#
    • handleSIGINT? <boolean> Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.#
    • handleSIGTERM? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.#
    • hasTouch? <boolean> Specifies if viewport supports touch events. Defaults to false.#
    • headless? <boolean> Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the devtools option is true.#
    • httpCredentials? <Object> Credentials for HTTP authentication.#
    • ignoreDefaultArgs? <boolean|Array<string>> If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.#
    • ignoreHTTPSErrors? <boolean> Whether to ignore HTTPS errors when sending network requests. Defaults to false.#
    • isMobile? <boolean> Whether the meta viewport tag is taken into account and touch events are enabled. Defaults to false. Not supported in Firefox.#
    • javaScriptEnabled? <boolean> Whether or not to enable JavaScript in the context. Defaults to true.#
    • locale? <string> Specify user locale, for example en-GB, de-DE, etc. Locale will affect navigator.language value, Accept-Language request header value as well as number and date formatting rules.#
    • logger? <Logger> Logger sink for Playwright logging.#
    • offline? <boolean> Whether to emulate network being offline. Defaults to false.#
    • permissions? <Array<string>> A list of permissions to grant to all pages in this context. See browserContext.grantPermissions(permissions[, options]) for more details.#
    • proxy? <Object> Network proxy settings.#
      • server <string> Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.
      • bypass? <string> Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".
      • username? <string> Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
      • password? <string> Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
    • recordHar? <Object> Enables HAR recording for all pages into recordHar.path file. If not specified, the HAR is not recorded. Make sure to await browserContext.close() for the HAR to be saved.#
      • omitContent? <boolean> Optional setting to control whether to omit request content from the HAR. Defaults to false. Deprecated, use content policy instead.
      • content? <"omit"|"embed"|"attach"> Optional setting to control resource content management. If omit is specified, content is not persisted. If attach is specified, resources are persisted as separate files or entries in the ZIP archive. If embed is specified, content is stored inline the HAR file as per HAR specification. Defaults to attach for .zip output files and to embed for all other file extensions.
      • path <string> Path on the filesystem to write the HAR file to. If the file name ends with .zip, content: 'attach' is used by default.
      • mode? <"full"|"minimal"> When set to minimal, only record information necessary for routing from HAR. This omits sizes, timing, page, cookies, security and other types of HAR information that are not used when replaying from HAR. Defaults to full.
      • urlFilter? <string|RegExp> A glob or regex pattern to filter requests that are stored in the HAR. When a baseURL via the context options was provided and the passed URL is a path, it gets merged via the new URL() constructor.
    • recordVideo? <Object> Enables video recording for all pages into recordVideo.dir directory. If not specified videos are not recorded. Make sure to await browserContext.close() for videos to be saved.#
      • dir <string> Path to the directory to put videos into.
      • size? <Object> Optional dimensions of the recorded videos. If not specified the size will be equal to viewport scaled down to fit into 800x800. If viewport is not configured explicitly the video size defaults to 800x450. Actual picture of each page will be scaled down if necessary to fit the specified size.
        • width <number> Video frame width.
        • height <number> Video frame height.
    • reducedMotion? <"reduce"|"no-preference"> Emulates 'prefers-reduced-motion' media feature, supported values are 'reduce', 'no-preference'. See page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details. Defaults to 'no-preference'.#
    • screen? <Object> Emulates consistent window screen size available inside web page via window.screen. Is only used when the viewport is set.#
      • width <number> page width in pixels.
      • height <number> page height in pixels.
    • serviceWorkers? <"allow"|"block"> Whether to allow sites to register Service workers. Defaults to 'allow'.#
      • 'allow': Service Workers can be registered.
      • 'block': Playwright will block all registration of Service Workers.
    • slowMo? <number> Slows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.#
    • strictSelectors? <boolean> If specified, enables strict selectors mode for this context. In the strict selectors mode all operations on selectors that imply single target DOM element will throw when more than one element matches the selector. See Locator to learn more about the strict mode.#
    • timeout? <number> Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.#
    • timezoneId? <string> Changes the timezone of the context. See ICU's metaZones.txt for a list of supported timezone IDs.#
    • tracesDir? <string> If specified, traces are saved into this directory.#
    • userAgent? <string> Specific user agent to use in this context.#
    • videoSize? <Object> DEPRECATED Use recordVideo instead.#
      • width <number> Video frame width.
      • height <number> Video frame height.
    • videosPath? <string> DEPRECATED Use recordVideo instead.#
    • viewport? <null|Object> Emulates consistent viewport for each page. Defaults to an 1280x720 viewport. null disables the default viewport.#
      • width <number> page width in pixels.
      • height <number> page height in pixels.
  • returns: <Promise<BrowserContext>>#

Returns the persistent browser context instance.

Launches browser that uses persistent storage located at userDataDir and returns the only context. Closing this context will automatically close the browser.

browserType.launchServer([options])​

Added in: v1.8

  • options? <Object>

    • args? <Array<string>> Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.#

    • channel? <string> Browser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.#

    • chromiumSandbox? <boolean> Enable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.#

    • devtools? <boolean> Chromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the headless option will be set false.#

    • downloadsPath? <string> If specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.#

    • env? <Object<string, string|number|boolean>> Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.#

    • executablePath? <string> Path to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium, Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.#

    • firefoxUserPrefs? <Object<string, string|number|boolean>> Firefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at about:config.#

    • handleSIGHUP? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.#

    • handleSIGINT? <boolean> Close the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.#

    • handleSIGTERM? <boolean> Close the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.#

    • headless? <boolean> Whether to run browser in headless mode. More details for Chromium and Firefox. Defaults to true unless the devtools option is true.#

    • ignoreDefaultArgs? <boolean|Array<string>> If true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.#

    • logger? <Logger> Logger sink for Playwright logging.#

    • port? <number> Port to use for the web socket. Defaults to 0 that picks any available port.#

    • proxy? <Object> Network proxy settings.#

      • server <string> Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.
      • bypass? <string> Optional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".
      • username? <string> Optional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
      • password? <string> Optional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.

    • timeout? <number> Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0 to disable timeout.#

    • tracesDir? <string> If specified, traces are saved into this directory.#

    • wsPath? <string> Path at which to serve the Browser Server. For security, this defaults to an unguessable string. Added in: v1.15#

      danger

      Any process or web page (including those running in Playwright) with knowledge of the wsPath can take control of the OS user. For this reason, you should use an unguessable token when using this option.

  • returns: <Promise<BrowserServer>>#

Returns the browser app instance. You can connect to it via browserType.connect(wsEndpoint[, options]), which requires the major/minor client/server version to match (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).

Launches browser server that client can connect to. An example of launching a browser executable and connecting to it later:

const { chromium } = require('playwright');  // Or 'webkit' or 'firefox'.

(async () => {
  const browserServer = await chromium.launchServer();
  const wsEndpoint = browserServer.wsEndpoint();
  // Use web socket endpoint later to establish a connection.
  const browser = await chromium.connect(wsEndpoint);
  // Close browser instance.
  await browserServer.close();
})();

browserType.name()​

Added in: v1.8

Returns browser name. For example: 'chromium', 'webkit' or 'firefox'.