Browserless
Headless browser as a service - Puppeteer & Playwright compatible
Browserless is a headless browser service that runs Chromium in Docker and exposes it via WebSocket and REST APIs. Connect your existing Puppeteer or Playwright scripts over WebSocket instead of running a local browser. Generate PDFs, take screenshots, scrape pages, and run browser automation at scale — all through simple API calls.
Why Browserless?
Running headless Chrome locally is resource-intensive and unreliable. Each browser instance consumes hundreds of MB of RAM. Managing browser processes, handling crashes, and scaling across multiple workers is complex. Cloud browser APIs are expensive and lock you into proprietary SDKs. You need a self-hosted solution that just works.
How It Works
Browserless runs Chromium in a Docker container and manages browser sessions for you. Connect via WebSocket using your existing Puppeteer or Playwright code — just change the connection URL. It handles session lifecycle, queuing, timeouts, and resource cleanup automatically. REST APIs provide one-call solutions for common tasks like screenshots and PDFs.
What Is Browserless?
Browserless is a headless browser service. It provides WebSocket endpoints for Puppeteer and Playwright, REST APIs for screenshots, PDFs, scraping, and content extraction. Supports concurrent sessions with queuing, token-based authentication, and configurable timeouts. SSPL-1.0 licensed with a commercial option.
Key Benefits
Why teams choose Browserless
Drop-in Replacement
Change one line of code — swap your local browser launch for a WebSocket URL. Works with existing Puppeteer/Playwright scripts.
REST APIs
One-call APIs for screenshots, PDFs, scraping, and content extraction. No browser code needed.
Session Management
Automatic browser lifecycle management with concurrent session limits, queuing, and cleanup.
Resource Efficient
Shared browser pool instead of one browser per task. Configurable concurrency and timeout limits.
Token Auth
Secure access with API token authentication. Control who can use your browser service.
Docker Native
Single container deployment. No complex setup or dependencies to manage.
Features
Everything you need to build with Browserless
WebSocket API
Connect Puppeteer or Playwright via WebSocket for full browser control.
Screenshot API
POST a URL, get back a PNG/JPEG screenshot. Supports full-page capture.
PDF Generation
Convert any URL to PDF with custom page size, margins, and headers.
Content Extraction
Extract text, HTML, or structured data from any web page.
Session Queuing
Configure max concurrent sessions with automatic queuing for overflow.
Health Monitoring
Built-in health checks and session monitoring endpoints.
Use Cases
What you can build with Browserless
Technology Stack
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