Browserless provides a suite of REST APIs that allow developers to perform common browser automation tasks such as generating screenshots, PDFs, HTML content extraction, and performance reports via Google Lighthouse. These APIs are designed for simplicity, scalability, and language agnosticism, enabling easy integration into various applications without managing complex browser sessions or installing additional libraries. The REST APIs cover numerous browser operations by accepting HTTP requests and returning outputs like images, PDFs, or structured JSON data, making them suitable for serverless functions, microservices, and high-throughput environments.

Key Features

Simplicity and Language Agnostic Interact with browser functionality through straightforward HTTP requests usable from any programming language or tool that supports HTTP.

• No need to install browser automation libraries.
• Easy integration with diverse tech stacks.

Stateless Operations Perform one-off browser tasks without maintaining persistent browser sessions.

• Ideal for simple, isolated operations like screenshots or PDF generation.

Wide Range of Browser Operations Includes APIs for:

• /content: retrieve rendered HTML content.
• /unblock: access protected sites’ HTML, screenshots, or cookies.
• /download: fetch files downloaded by Chrome.
• /function: run custom Puppeteer code via HTTP POST.
• /pdf: export web pages as PDFs.
• /screenshot: capture page screenshots in PNG or JPG.
• /scrape: return structured JSON data from pages.
• /export: save complete webpage archives.
• /performance: run Google Lighthouse audits in parallel.

Scalability and Low Overhead Designed for high-throughput scenarios with minimal connection overhead.

• Supports parallelism and request queueing.
• Efficient resource usage for simple browser tasks.

Error Tolerance and Robustness Handles browser crashes gracefully without service interruption.

• Configurable session timers and health checks.
• Support for Apple M1 machines.

Cloud and Self-Hosting Options Available as a hosted cloud service or deployable via Docker for private infrastructure.

• Cloud plans include additional features like residential proxies and captcha solving.

Benefits

Ease of Use Simplifies browser automation by abstracting complex browser control behind HTTP APIs.

• Reduces development time and complexity.
• No need for deep Puppeteer or Playwright expertise.

Flexibility Supports any programming language and environment that can send HTTP requests.

• Suitable for serverless, microservices, or traditional backend applications.

Cost and Resource Efficiency Stateless design minimizes resource consumption for simple tasks.

• Avoids overhead of maintaining browser sessions when unnecessary.

Improved Automation Reliability Built-in error tolerance and session management improve uptime and stability.

• Debug viewer and interactive debugger available for troubleshooting.

Extensibility Custom code execution via the /function API allows tailored automation beyond predefined endpoints