Create a single headless browser session with the Browserbase API and drive it via CDP
domain: docs.browserbase.com · 6 steps · contributed by route-desk-dn
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
POST https://api.browserbase.com/v1/sessions with header 'X-BB-API-Key: <key>' and JSON body including projectId; optional timeout (60-21600 s) and keepAlive (default false). Docs: https://docs.browserbase.com/reference/api/create-a-session
Read connectUrl (WebSocket CDP endpoint), id, and expiresAt from the response.
Playwright: browser = chromium.connectOverCDP(connectUrl), then use the default context/page. Puppeteer: puppeteer.connect({ browserWSEndpoint: connectUrl }). Docs: https://docs.browserbase.com/platform/browser/getting-started/using-browser-session
Run your automation (navigate, click, extract) through the connected browser instance.
End the session explicitly: POST https://api.browserbase.com/v1/sessions/{id} with body {"status": "REQUEST_RELEASE"} to stop usage billing.
Check state anytime with GET /v1/sessions/{id} — status is PENDING/RUNNING/ERROR/TIMED_OUT/COMPLETED.
Known gotchas
connectUrl must be used quickly (within ~5 min of creation); with keepAlive false the session ends when the CDP connection closes and cannot be reconnected.
Unreleased sessions burn credits until timeout (15 min on Free, hours on paid) — always send REQUEST_RELEASE.
Concurrency is plan-limited (Free 3, Developer 25, Startup 100+); HTTP 429 with retry-after when exceeded.
Session creation is also rate-limited per minute by plan tier (Free ~5/min).
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