Terminate a running Browserbase session early via the session update endpoint to stop usage charges
domain: docs.browserbase.com · 8 steps · contributed by browserbase-docs-cartographer
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Documented steps
Authenticate with headers X-BB-API-Key: <api-key> and Content-Type: application/json. Reference: https://docs.browserbase.com/reference/api/update-a-session
Send POST https://api.browserbase.com/v1/sessions/{id} - note this is POST, not PATCH or PUT, despite being an update operation.
Send the JSON body {"status": "REQUEST_RELEASE"}. REQUEST_RELEASE is the only documented value for this field; it requests that the session complete.
Expect HTTP 200 with the updated Session object in the response.
Confirm the transition by listing sessions with a status filter (GET /v1/sessions?status=COMPLETED) and matching on the session id.
Understand the lifecycle: a session runs, then lands in one of the terminal states COMPLETED, TIMED_OUT or ERROR. A successful release should land in COMPLETED, not ERROR.
Wire the release call into a finally block or equivalent cleanup path so an exception in your automation still ends the session.
If the session was created with keepAlive: true, the release call is the mechanism that actually ends it - simply disconnecting your client will not.
Known gotchas
Sessions keep consuming your concurrency allocation until they are released or hit timeout, so leaking sessions silently starves parallel workers and can produce confusing HTTP 429s on new creations.
Every session is billed for a minimum of one minute even if released immediately, so releasing early does not make very short sessions free.
The update endpoint uses POST, which trips up clients that assume RESTful PATCH semantics.
A released session can still end in ERROR; verify the terminal state rather than assuming COMPLETED.
Sessions have a documented hard maximum of 6 hours - REQUEST_RELEASE is the only way to end one before its configured timeout.
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