File: class-browsercontext.md | Updated: 11/18/2025
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BrowserContexts provide a way to operate multiple independent browser sessions.
If a page opens another page, e.g. with a window.open call, the popup will belong to the parent page's browser context.
Playwright allows creating isolated non-persistent browser contexts with browser.newContext() method. Non-persistent browser contexts don't write any browsing data to disk.
// Create a new incognito browser contextconst context = await browser.newContext();// Create a new page inside context.const page = await context.newPage();await page.goto('https://example.com');// Dispose context once it's no longer needed.await context.close();
Methods
Added before v1.9 browserContext.addCookies
Adds cookies into this browser context. All pages within this context will have these cookies installed. Cookies can be obtained via browserContext.cookies() .
Usage
await browserContext.addCookies([cookieObject1, cookieObject2]);
Arguments
cookies Array
<Object
>#
name string
value string
url string
(optional)
Either url or domain / path are required. Optional.
domain string
(optional)
For the cookie to apply to all subdomains as well, prefix domain with a dot, like this: ".example.com". Either url or domain / path are required. Optional.
path string
(optional)
Either url or domain / path are required Optional.
expires number
(optional)
Unix time in seconds. Optional.
httpOnly boolean
(optional)
Optional.
secure boolean
(optional)
Optional.
sameSite "Strict" | "Lax" | "None" (optional)
Optional.
partitionKey string
(optional)
For partitioned third-party cookies (aka CHIPS ), the partition key. Optional.
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.addInitScript
Adds a script which would be evaluated in one of the following scenarios:
The script is evaluated after the document was created but before any of its scripts were run. This is useful to amend the JavaScript environment, e.g. to seed Math.random.
Usage
An example of overriding Math.random before the page loads:
// preload.jsMath.random = () => 42;
// In your playwright script, assuming the preload.js file is in same directory.await browserContext.addInitScript({ path: 'preload.js'});
note
The order of evaluation of multiple scripts installed via browserContext.addInitScript() and page.addInitScript() is not defined.
Arguments
script function
| string
| Object
#
path string
(optional)
Path to the JavaScript file. If path is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory. Optional.
content string
(optional)
Raw script content. Optional.
Script to be evaluated in all pages in the browser context.
arg Serializable
(optional)#
Optional argument to pass to script (only supported when passing a function).
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.browser
Gets the browser instance that owns the context. Returns null if the context is created outside of normal browser, e.g. Android or Electron.
Usage
browserContext.browser();
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.clearCookies
Removes cookies from context. Accepts optional filter.
Usage
await context.clearCookies();await context.clearCookies({ name: 'session-id' });await context.clearCookies({ domain: 'my-origin.com' });await context.clearCookies({ domain: /.*my-origin\.com/ });await context.clearCookies({ path: '/api/v1' });await context.clearCookies({ name: 'session-id', domain: 'my-origin.com' });
Arguments
options Object
(optional)
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.clearPermissions
Clears all permission overrides for the browser context.
Usage
const context = await browser.newContext();await context.grantPermissions(['clipboard-read']);// do stuff ..context.clearPermissions();
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.close
Closes the browser context. All the pages that belong to the browser context will be closed.
note
The default browser context cannot be closed.
Usage
await browserContext.close();await browserContext.close(options);
Arguments
options Object
(optional)
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.cookies
If no URLs are specified, this method returns all cookies. If URLs are specified, only cookies that affect those URLs are returned.
Usage
await browserContext.cookies();await browserContext.cookies(urls);
Arguments
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.exposeBinding
The method adds a function called name
on the window object of every frame in every page in the context. When called, the function executes callback
and returns a Promise
which resolves to the return value of callback
. If the callback
returns a Promise
, it will be awaited.
The first argument of the callback
function contains information about the caller: { browserContext: BrowserContext, page: Page, frame: Frame }.
See page.exposeBinding() for page-only version.
Usage
An example of exposing page URL to all frames in all pages in the context:
const { webkit } = require('playwright'); // Or 'chromium' or 'firefox'.(async () => { const browser = await webkit.launch({ headless: false }); const context = await browser.newContext(); await context.exposeBinding('pageURL', ({ page }) => page.url()); const page = await context.newPage(); await page.setContent(` <script> async function onClick() { document.querySelector('div').textContent = await window.pageURL(); } </script> <button onclick="onClick()">Click me</button> <div></div> `); await page.getByRole('button').click();})();
Arguments
Name of the function on the window object.
Callback function that will be called in the Playwright's context.
options Object
(optional)
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.exposeFunction
The method adds a function called name
on the window object of every frame in every page in the context. When called, the function executes callback
and returns a Promise
which resolves to the return value of callback
.
If the callback returns a Promise , it will be awaited.
See page.exposeFunction() for page-only version.
Usage
An example of adding a sha256 function to all pages in the context:
const { webkit } = require('playwright'); // Or 'chromium' or 'firefox'.const crypto = require('crypto');(async () => { const browser = await webkit.launch({ headless: false }); const context = await browser.newContext(); await context.exposeFunction('sha256', text => crypto.createHash('sha256').update(text).digest('hex'), ); const page = await context.newPage(); await page.setContent(` <script> async function onClick() { document.querySelector('div').textContent = await window.sha256('PLAYWRIGHT'); } </script> <button onclick="onClick()">Click me</button> <div></div> `); await page.getByRole('button').click();})();
Arguments
Name of the function on the window object.
Callback function that will be called in the Playwright's context.
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.grantPermissions
Grants specified permissions to the browser context. Only grants corresponding permissions to the given origin if specified.
Usage
await browserContext.grantPermissions(permissions);await browserContext.grantPermissions(permissions, options);
Arguments
A list of permissions to grant.
danger
Supported permissions differ between browsers, and even between different versions of the same browser. Any permission may stop working after an update.
Here are some permissions that may be supported by some browsers:
'accelerometer''ambient-light-sensor''background-sync''camera''clipboard-read''clipboard-write''geolocation''gyroscope''local-fonts''local-network-access''magnetometer''microphone''midi-sysex' (system-exclusive midi)'midi''notifications''payment-handler''storage-access'options Object
(optional)
The origin to grant permissions to, e.g. "https://example.com ".
Returns
Added in: v1.11 browserContext.newCDPSession
note
CDP sessions are only supported on Chromium-based browsers.
Returns the newly created session.
Usage
await browserContext.newCDPSession(page);
Arguments
Target to create new session for. For backwards-compatibility, this parameter is named page, but it can be a Page or Frame type.
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.newPage
Creates a new page in the browser context.
Usage
await browserContext.newPage();
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.pages
Returns all open pages in the context.
Usage
browserContext.pages();
Returns
Added in: v1.47 browserContext.removeAllListeners
Removes all the listeners of the given type (or all registered listeners if no type given). Allows to wait for async listeners to complete or to ignore subsequent errors from these listeners.
Usage
await browserContext.removeAllListeners();await browserContext.removeAllListeners(type, options);
Arguments
options Object
(optional)
behavior "wait" | "ignoreErrors" | "default" (optional)#
Specifies whether to wait for already running listeners and what to do if they throw errors:
'default' - do not wait for current listener calls (if any) to finish, if the listener throws, it may result in unhandled error'wait' - wait for current listener calls (if any) to finish'ignoreErrors' - do not wait for current listener calls (if any) to finish, all errors thrown by the listeners after removal are silently caughtReturns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.route
Routing provides the capability to modify network requests that are made by any page in the browser context. Once route is enabled, every request matching the url pattern will stall unless it's continued, fulfilled or aborted.
note
browserContext.route()
will not intercept requests intercepted by Service Worker. See this
issue. We recommend disabling Service Workers when using request interception by setting serviceWorkers
to 'block'.
Usage
An example of a naive handler that aborts all image requests:
const context = await browser.newContext();await context.route('**/*.{png,jpg,jpeg}', route => route.abort());const page = await context.newPage();await page.goto('https://example.com');await browser.close();
or the same snippet using a regex pattern instead:
const context = await browser.newContext();await context.route(/(\.png$)|(\.jpg$)/, route => route.abort());const page = await context.newPage();await page.goto('https://example.com');await browser.close();
It is possible to examine the request to decide the route action. For example, mocking all requests that contain some post data, and leaving all other requests as is:
await context.route('/api/**', async route => { if (route.request().postData().includes('my-string')) await route.fulfill({ body: 'mocked-data' }); else await route.continue();});
Page routes (set up with page.route() ) take precedence over browser context routes when request matches both handlers.
To remove a route with its handler you can use browserContext.unroute() .
note
Enabling routing disables http cache.
Arguments
url string
| RegExp
| function
(URL
):boolean
#
A glob pattern, regex pattern, or predicate that receives a URL
to match during routing. If baseURL
is set in the context options and the provided URL is a string that does not start with *, it is resolved using the new URL()
constructor.
handler function
(Route
, Request
):Promise
<Object
> | Object
#
handler function to route the request.
options Object
(optional)
Returns
Added in: v1.23 browserContext.routeFromHAR
If specified the network requests that are made in the context will be served from the HAR file. Read more about Replaying from HAR .
Playwright will not serve requests intercepted by Service Worker from the HAR file. See this
issue. We recommend disabling Service Workers when using request interception by setting serviceWorkers
to 'block'.
Usage
await browserContext.routeFromHAR(har);await browserContext.routeFromHAR(har, options);
Arguments
Path to a HAR
file with prerecorded network data. If path is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to the current working directory.
options Object
(optional)
notFound "abort" | "fallback" (optional)#
Defaults to abort.
If specified, updates the given HAR with the actual network information instead of serving from file. The file is written to disk when browserContext.close() is called.
updateContent "embed" | "attach" (optional) Added in: v1.32#
Optional setting to control resource content management. 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.
updateMode "full" | "minimal" (optional) Added in: v1.32#
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 minimal.
url string
| RegExp
(optional)#
A glob pattern, regular expression or predicate to match the request URL. Only requests with URL matching the pattern will be served from the HAR file. If not specified, all requests are served from the HAR file.
Returns
Added in: v1.48 browserContext.routeWebSocket
This method allows to modify websocket connections that are made by any page in the browser context.
Note that only WebSockets created after this method was called will be routed. It is recommended to call this method before creating any pages.
Usage
Below is an example of a simple handler that blocks some websocket messages. See WebSocketRoute for more details and examples.
await context.routeWebSocket('/ws', async ws => { ws.routeSend(message => { if (message === 'to-be-blocked') return; ws.send(message); }); await ws.connect();});
Arguments
url string
| RegExp
| function
(URL
):boolean
#
Only WebSockets with the url matching this pattern will be routed. A string pattern can be relative to the baseURL context option.
handler function
(WebSocketRoute
):Promise
<Object
> | Object
#
Handler function to route the WebSocket.
Returns
Added in: v1.11 browserContext.serviceWorkers
note
Service workers are only supported on Chromium-based browsers.
All existing service workers in the context.
Usage
browserContext.serviceWorkers();
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setDefaultNavigationTimeout
This setting will change the default maximum navigation time for the following methods and related shortcuts:
note
page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout() and page.setDefaultTimeout() take priority over browserContext.setDefaultNavigationTimeout() .
Usage
browserContext.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(timeout);
Arguments
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setDefaultTimeout
This setting will change the default maximum time for all the methods accepting timeout option.
note
page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout() , page.setDefaultTimeout() and browserContext.setDefaultNavigationTimeout() take priority over browserContext.setDefaultTimeout() .
Usage
browserContext.setDefaultTimeout(timeout);
Arguments
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setExtraHTTPHeaders
The extra HTTP headers will be sent with every request initiated by any page in the context. These headers are merged with page-specific extra HTTP headers set with page.setExtraHTTPHeaders() . If page overrides a particular header, page-specific header value will be used instead of the browser context header value.
note
browserContext.setExtraHTTPHeaders() does not guarantee the order of headers in the outgoing requests.
Usage
await browserContext.setExtraHTTPHeaders(headers);
Arguments
headers Object
<string
, string
>#
An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request. All header values must be strings.
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setGeolocation
Sets the context's geolocation. Passing null or undefined emulates position unavailable.
Usage
await browserContext.setGeolocation({ latitude: 59.95, longitude: 30.31667 });
note
Consider using browserContext.grantPermissions() to grant permissions for the browser context pages to read its geolocation.
Arguments
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setOffline
Usage
await browserContext.setOffline(offline);
Arguments
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.storageState
Returns storage state for this browser context, contains current cookies, local storage snapshot and IndexedDB snapshot.
Usage
await browserContext.storageState();await browserContext.storageState(options);
Arguments
options Object
(optional)
indexedDB boolean
(optional) Added in: v1.51#
Set to true to include IndexedDB
in the storage state snapshot. If your application uses IndexedDB to store authentication tokens, like Firebase Authentication, enable this.
The file path to save the storage state to. If path is a relative path, then it is resolved relative to current working directory. If no path is provided, storage state is still returned, but won't be saved to the disk.
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.unroute
Removes a route created with browserContext.route() . When handler is not specified, removes all routes for the url .
Usage
await browserContext.unroute(url);await browserContext.unroute(url, handler);
Arguments
url string
| RegExp
| function
(URL
):boolean
#
A glob pattern, regex pattern or predicate receiving URL used to register a routing with browserContext.route() .
handler function
(Route
, Request
):Promise
<Object
> | Object
(optional)#
Optional handler function used to register a routing with browserContext.route() .
Returns
Added in: v1.41 browserContext.unrouteAll
Removes all routes created with browserContext.route() and browserContext.routeFromHAR() .
Usage
await browserContext.unrouteAll();await browserContext.unrouteAll(options);
Arguments
options Object
(optional)
behavior "wait" | "ignoreErrors" | "default" (optional)#
Specifies whether to wait for already running handlers and what to do if they throw errors:
'default' - do not wait for current handler calls (if any) to finish, if unrouted handler throws, it may result in unhandled error'wait' - wait for current handler calls (if any) to finish'ignoreErrors' - do not wait for current handler calls (if any) to finish, all errors thrown by the handlers after unrouting are silently caughtReturns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.waitForEvent
Waits for event to fire and passes its value into the predicate function. Returns when the predicate returns truthy value. Will throw an error if the context closes before the event is fired. Returns the event data value.
Usage
const pagePromise = context.waitForEvent('page');await page.getByRole('button').click();const page = await pagePromise;
Arguments
Event name, same one would pass into browserContext.on(event).
optionsOrPredicate function
| Object
(optional)#
predicate function
Receives the event data and resolves to truthy value when the waiting should resolve.
timeout number
(optional)
Maximum time to wait for in milliseconds. Defaults to 0 - no timeout. The default value can be changed via actionTimeout option in the config, or by using the browserContext.setDefaultTimeout()
method.
Either a predicate that receives an event or an options object. Optional.
options Object
(optional)
Returns
Properties
Added in: v1.45 browserContext.clock
Playwright has ability to mock clock and passage of time.
Usage
browserContext.clock
Type
Added in: v1.16 browserContext.request
API testing helper associated with this context. Requests made with this API will use context cookies.
Usage
browserContext.request
Type
Added in: v1.12 browserContext.tracing
Usage
browserContext.tracing
Type
Events
Added before v1.9 browserContext.on('close')
Emitted when Browser context gets closed. This might happen because of one of the following:
Usage
browserContext.on('close', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.34 browserContext.on('console')
Emitted when JavaScript within the page calls one of console API methods, e.g. console.log or console.dir.
The arguments passed into console.log and the page are available on the ConsoleMessage
event handler argument.
Usage
context.on('console', async msg => { const values = []; for (const arg of msg.args()) values.push(await arg.jsonValue()); console.log(...values);});await page.evaluate(() => console.log('hello', 5, { foo: 'bar' }));
Event data
Added in: v1.34 browserContext.on('dialog')
Emitted when a JavaScript dialog appears, such as alert, prompt, confirm or beforeunload. Listener must either dialog.accept()
or dialog.dismiss()
the dialog - otherwise the page will freeze
waiting for the dialog, and actions like click will never finish.
Usage
context.on('dialog', dialog => { dialog.accept();});
note
When no page.on('dialog') or browserContext.on('dialog') listeners are present, all dialogs are automatically dismissed.
Event data
Added before v1.9 browserContext.on('page')
The event is emitted when a new Page is created in the BrowserContext. The page may still be loading. The event will also fire for popup pages. See also page.on('popup') to receive events about popups relevant to a specific page.
The earliest moment that page is available is when it has navigated to the initial url. For example, when opening a popup with window.open('http://example.com'), this event will fire when the network request to "http://example.com
" is done and its response has started loading in the popup. If you would like to route/listen to this network request, use browserContext.route()
and browserContext.on('request')
respectively instead of similar methods on the Page
.
const newPagePromise = context.waitForEvent('page');await page.getByText('open new page').click();const newPage = await newPagePromise;console.log(await newPage.evaluate('location.href'));
note
Use page.waitForLoadState() to wait until the page gets to a particular state (you should not need it in most cases).
Usage
browserContext.on('page', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.12 browserContext.on('request')
Emitted when a request is issued from any pages created through this context. The request object is read-only. To only listen for requests from a particular page, use page.on('request') .
In order to intercept and mutate requests, see browserContext.route() or page.route() .
Usage
browserContext.on('request', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.12 browserContext.on('requestfailed')
Emitted when a request fails, for example by timing out. To only listen for failed requests from a particular page, use page.on('requestfailed') .
note
HTTP Error responses, such as 404 or 503, are still successful responses from HTTP standpoint, so request will complete with browserContext.on('requestfinished') event and not with browserContext.on('requestfailed') .
Usage
browserContext.on('requestfailed', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.12 browserContext.on('requestfinished')
Emitted when a request finishes successfully after downloading the response body. For a successful response, the sequence of events is request, response and requestfinished. To listen for successful requests from a particular page, use page.on('requestfinished')
.
Usage
browserContext.on('requestfinished', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.12 browserContext.on('response')
Emitted when response
status and headers are received for a request. For a successful response, the sequence of events is request, response and requestfinished. To listen for response events from a particular page, use page.on('response')
.
Usage
browserContext.on('response', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.11 browserContext.on('serviceworker')
note
Service workers are only supported on Chromium-based browsers.
Emitted when new service worker is created in the context.
Usage
browserContext.on('serviceworker', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.38 browserContext.on('weberror')
Emitted when exception is unhandled in any of the pages in this context. To listen for errors from a particular page, use page.on('pageerror') instead.
Usage
browserContext.on('weberror', data => {});
Event data
Deprecated
Added in: v1.11 browserContext.on('backgroundpage')
Deprecated
Background pages have been removed from Chromium together with Manifest V2 extensions.
This event is not emitted.
Usage
browserContext.on('backgroundpage', data => {});
Event data
Added in: v1.11 browserContext.backgroundPages
Deprecated
Background pages have been removed from Chromium together with Manifest V2 extensions.
Returns an empty list.
Usage
browserContext.backgroundPages();
Returns
Added before v1.9 browserContext.setHTTPCredentials
Deprecated
Browsers may cache credentials after successful authentication. Create a new browser context instead.
Usage
await browserContext.setHTTPCredentials(httpCredentials);
Arguments
Returns