Browserless
lastmod 2026-11-11created 2026-11-111 edits
Google Chrome as a service
About
- A Docker image that lets you use headless Chrome remotely like a web service. Start the container and control the browser over a WebSocket connection
- Works with the original, unforked Puppeteer and Playwright libraries (
puppeteer.connect,playwright-core) - It began as a Chrome-only image accessed through Puppeteer, Selenium WebDriver, or a REST API; Firefox and WebKit images are now also available
- Provides a web-based interactive debugger and a Debug Viewer for debugging running sessions with Chrome Remote DevTools
- Handles parallel work with concurrency limits and queuing. Supports fonts and emoji; timeouts and health checks are configurable
- Example:
docker run -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/browserless/chromium. For Firefox and WebKit, use theghcr.io/browserless/firefoxandghcr.io/browserless/multiimages - The HTML/PDF/screenshot REST APIs, BrowserQL, session replay, the MCP server, and similar features are paid (Cloud and Enterprise). Besides self-hosting, a hosted Browserless Cloud service is available
- Supports ARM64 (including Apple Silicon), although Chrome and Edge have limited ARM64 compatibility
- SSPL-1.0 or a commercial license. Free for non-commercial use; a commercial license is required for commercial services or closed-source CI
See also
- Puppeteer
- Playwright
- Chrome
- Kernel (Browser Automation) - Serverless platform for browser automation