Chrome for Testing

Starting with this release, Playwright switches from Chromium, to usingChrome for Testing builds. Both headed and headless browsers are subject to this. Your tests should still be passing after upgrading to Playwright 1.57.

We're expecting no functional changes to come from this switch. The biggest change is the new icon and title in your toolbar.

If you still see an unexpected behaviour change, pleasefile an issue.

On Arm64 Linux, Playwright continues to use Chromium.

Breaking Change

After 3 years of being deprecated, we removedpage.accessibility from our API. Please use other libraries such asAxe if you need to test page accessibility. See our Node.jsguide for integration with Axe.

New APIs

• worker.on("console") event is emitted when JavaScript within the worker calls one of console API methods, e.g. console.log or console.dir.worker.expect_event() can be used to wait for it.
• locator.description() returns locator description previously set withlocator.describe().
• New optionsteps inlocator.click() andlocator.drag_to() that configures the number ofmousemove events emitted while moving the mouse pointer to the target element.
• Network requests issued byService Workers are now reported and can be routed through theBrowserContext, only in Chromium. You can opt out using thePLAYWRIGHT_DISABLE_SERVICE_WORKER_NETWORK environment variable.
• Console messages from Service Workers are dispatched throughworker.on("console"). You can opt out of this using thePLAYWRIGHT_DISABLE_SERVICE_WORKER_CONSOLE environment variable.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 143.0.7499.4
• Mozilla Firefox 144.0.2
• WebKit 26.0

New APIs

• New methodspage. console_messages() andpage.page_errors() for retrieving the most recent console messages from the page
• New methodpage.requests() for retrieving the most recent network requests from the page

Breaking Changes

• EventbrowserContext.on("backgroundpage") has been deprecated and will not be emitted. MethodbrowserContext. background_pages() will return an empty list

Miscellaneous

• Aria snapshots render and compareinputplaceholder

Browser Versions

• Chromium 141.0.7390.37
• Mozilla Firefox 142.0.1
• WebKit 26.0

Codegen

• Automaticto_be_visible() assertions: Codegen can now generate automaticto_be_visible() assertions for common UI interactions. This feature can be enabled in the Codegen settings UI.

Breaking Changes

• ⚠️ Dropped support for Chromium extension manifest v2.

Miscellaneous

• Added support for Debian 13 "Trixie".

Browser Versions

• Chromium 140.0.7339.16
• Mozilla Firefox 141.0
• WebKit 26.0

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 139
• Microsoft Edge 139

Highlights

• New cookie propertypartition_key inBrowserContext.cookies() andbrowserContext.add_cookies(). This property allows to save and restore partitioned cookies. SeeCHIPS MDN article for more information. Note that browsers have different support and defaults for cookie partitioning.

• New option--user-data-dir in multiple commands. You can specify the same user data dir to reuse browsing state, like authentication, between sessions.

  playwright codegen --user-data-dir=./user-data

• playwright open does not open the test recorder anymore. Useplaywright codegen instead.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 139.0.7258.5
• Mozilla Firefox 140.0.2
• WebKit 26.0

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 140
• Microsoft Edge 140

Miscellaneous

• New Steps in Trace Viewer:
  

• New methodlocator.describe() to describe a locator. Used for trace viewer.

  button=page.get_by_test_id("btn-sub").describe("Subscribe button")button.click()

• python -m playwright install --list will now list all installed browsers, versions and locations.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 138.0.7204.4
• Mozilla Firefox 139.0
• WebKit 18.5

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 137
• Microsoft Edge 137

Highlights

• New methodexpect(locator).to_contain_class() to ergonomically assert individual class names on the element.

  expect(page.get_by_role("listitem",name="Ship v1.52")).to_contain_class("done")

• Aria Snapshots got two new properties:/children for strict matching and/url for links.

  expect(locator).to_match_aria_snapshot("""  - list    - /children: equal    - listitem: Feature A    - listitem:      - link "Feature B":        - /url: "https://playwright.dev"""")

Miscellaneous

• New optionmax_redirects inapiRequest.new_context() to control the maximum number of redirects.
• New optionref inlocator.aria_snapshot() to generate reference for each element in the snapshot which can later be used to locate the element.

Breaking Changes

• Methodroute.continue() does not allow to override theCookie header anymore. If aCookie header is provided, it will be ignored, and the cookie will be loaded from the browser's cookie store. To set custom cookies, usebrowserContext.add_cookies().
• macOS 13 is now deprecated and will no longer receive WebKit updates. Please upgrade to a more recent macOS version to continue benefiting from the latest WebKit improvements.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 136.0.7103.25
• Mozilla Firefox 137.0
• WebKit 18.4

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 135
• Microsoft Edge 135

Highlights

• New optionindexed_db forbrowserContext.storage_state() allows to save and restore IndexedDB contents. Useful when your application usesIndexedDB API to store authentication tokens, like Firebase Authentication.

  Here is an example following theauthentication guide:

  # Save storage state into the file. Make sure to include IndexedDB.storage=context.storage_state(path="state.json",indexed_db=True)# Create a new context with the saved storage state.context=browser.new_context(storage_state="state.json")

• New optionvisible forlocator.filter() allows matching only visible elements.

  # Ignore invisible todo items.todo_items=page.get_by_test_id("todo-item").filter(visible=True)# Check there are exactly 3 visible ones.expect(todo_items).to_have_count(3)

• New optioncontrast for methodspage.emulate_media() andbrowser.new_context() allows to emulate theprefers-contrast media feature.

• New optionfail_on_status_code makes all fetch requests made through theAPIRequestContext throw on response codes other than 2xx and 3xx.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 134.0.6998.35
• Mozilla Firefox 135.0
• WebKit 18.4

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 133
• Microsoft Edge 133

Async Pytest Plugin

• Playwright's Pytest plugin now has support forAsync Fixtures.

Miscellaneous

• Added methodexpect(locator).to_have_accessible_error_message() to assert the Locator points to an element with a givenaria errormessage.

UI updates

• New button in Codegen for picking elements to produce aria snapshots.
• Additional details (such as keys pressed) are now displayed alongside action API calls in traces.
• Display ofcanvas content in traces is error-prone. Display is now disabled by default, and can be enabled via theDisplay canvas content UI setting.
• Call andNetwork panels now display additional time information.

Breaking

• expect(locator).to_be_editable() andlocator.is_editable() now throw if the target element is not<input>,<select>, or a number of other editable elements.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 133.0.6943.16
• Mozilla Firefox 134.0
• WebKit 18.2

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 132
• Microsoft Edge 132

Highlights

#2679 - [Bug]: Warning: Validation of the RECORD file of playwright-1.49.0-py3-none-manylinux1_x86_64.whl failed

Browser Versions

• Chromium 131.0.6778.33
• Mozilla Firefox 132.0
• WebKit 18.2

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 130
• Microsoft Edge 130

Aria snapshots

New assertionexpect(locator).toMatchAriaSnapshot() verifies page structure by comparing to an expected accessibility tree, represented as YAML.

page.goto("https://playwright.dev")expect(page.locator('body')).to_match_aria_snapshot('''  - banner:    - heading /Playwright enables reliable/ [level=1]    - link "Get started"    - link "Star microsoft/playwright on GitHub"  - main:    - img "Browsers (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit)"    - heading "Any browser • Any platform • One API"''')

You can generate this assertion withTest Generator or by callinglocator.ariaSnapshot().

Learn more in thearia snapshots guide.

Tracing groups

New methodtracing.group() allows you to visually group actions in the trace viewer.

# All actions between group and group_end# will be shown in the trace viewer as a group.page.context.tracing.group("Open Playwright.dev > API")page.goto("https://playwright.dev/")page.get_by_role("link",name="API").click()page.context.tracing.group_end()

Breaking:chrome andmsedge channels switch to new headless mode

This change affects you if you're using one of the following channels in yourplaywright.config.ts:

• chrome,chrome-dev,chrome-beta, orchrome-canary
• msedge,msedge-dev,msedge-beta, ormsedge-canary

After updating to Playwright v1.49, run your test suite. If it still passes, you're good to go. If not, you will probably need to update your snapshots, and adapt some of your test code around PDF viewers and extensions. Seeissue #33566 for more details.

Try new Chromium headless

You can opt into the new headless mode by using'chromium' channel. Asofficial Chrome documentation puts it:

New Headless on the other hand is the real Chrome browser, and is thus more authentic, reliable, and offers more features. This makes it more suitable for high-accuracy end-to-end web app testing or browser extension testing.

Seeissue #33566 for the list of possible breakages you could encounter and more details on Chromium headless. Please file an issue if you see any problems after opting in.

pytest test_login.py --browser-channel chromium

Miscellaneous

• There will be no more updates for WebKit on Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 11. We recommend updating your OS to a later version.
• <canvas> elements inside a snapshot now draw a preview.
• Python 3.8 is not supported anymore.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 131.0.6778.33
• Mozilla Firefox 132.0
• WebKit 18.2

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 130
• Microsoft Edge 130