Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a JavaScript library that provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Firefox for web scraping, testing, and browser automation tasks.
Puppeteer is a fast, reliable JavaScript library that provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Firefox over the Chrome DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi, depending on the browser. Maintained by the Chrome team, Puppeteer is used for browser automation and web scraping.
Key Features:
- Headless or Headful - Run browsers with or without a visible UI for any automation scenario
- Full Browser Control - Navigate pages, fill forms, click elements, and extract data programmatically
- Screenshot and PDF - Generate screenshots and PDFs from web pages
- Network Interception - Monitor and intercept network requests for advanced scraping
- MCP Server - Chrome DevTools MCP integration for AI-powered browser automation
Whether you're scraping dynamic websites, generating screenshots, or automating browser workflows, Puppeteer provides the reliable foundation you need.
Quick verdict
Puppeteer fits JavaScript teams that need direct Chrome or Firefox automation for scraping, testing, screenshots, and PDFs. It is not a hosted scraping platform, so proxies, retries, and scheduling are on you.
- Best for
- JavaScript browser automation
- Screenshots and PDFs
- Dynamic-page scraping
- Network interception workflows
- Not ideal for
- Hosted scraping API
- Built-in proxy rotation
- WebKit validation
- Last verified
- Jan 24, 2026
Key facts
- SDKsJavaScript, Python, and C# package entriesProject docs
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Our productSource code
puppeteer/puppeteer
Stars
95.7KForks
9.6KLast commit
2026-10-15License
Apache-2.0Language
TypeScript
Metrics recorded 2026-10-16
Repository details
License source: Repository license file
Frequently asked questions
What is Puppeteer used for?
Puppeteer is a JavaScript library for controlling Chrome or Firefox. It can automate navigation and page interactions, inspect content, generate screenshots or PDFs, and run browser-based workflows. It runs headless by default, with a visible-browser option.
Sources (checked ): Puppeteer introduction
Is Puppeteer the same as Playwright?
They are separate browser automation libraries. Puppeteer controls Chrome and Firefox; Playwright supports Chromium, Firefox and WebKit. Playwright also provides Playwright Test for Node.js. Compare supported browsers, APIs and testing integrations rather than assuming the libraries are interchangeable.
Sources (checked ): Puppeteer; Playwright browsers; Playwright Test
What are the key differences between Selenium and Puppeteer?
Puppeteer exposes a JavaScript API for Chrome and Firefox. Selenium WebDriver provides browser automation through multiple language bindings and can use Selenium Grid for remote execution. The choice depends on the browsers, programming language and execution setup your project requires.
Sources (checked ): Puppeteer API scope; Selenium WebDriver; Selenium Grid
Similar to Puppeteer
Sources
Verified against the puppeteer/puppeteer repository and the npm package.
Source notes
Compiled from public repository and package data; check the project's docs for current details.