Release notes from playwright-python

v1.58.0

2026-01-30T14:35:38Z

Trace Viewer Improvements

New 'system' theme option follows your OS dark/light mode preference
Search functionality (Cmd/Ctrl+F) is now available in code editors
Network details panel has been reorganized for better usability
JSON responses are now automatically formatted for readability

Thanks to @cpAdm for contributing these improvements!

Miscellaneous

browser_type.connect_over_cdp() now accepts an is_local option. When set to True, it tells Playwright that it runs on the same host as the CDP server, enabling file system optimizations.

Breaking Changes ⚠️

Removed _react and _vue selectors. See locators guide for alternatives.
Removed :light selector engine suffix. Use standard CSS selectors instead.
Option devtools from browser_type.launch() has been removed. Use args=['--auto-open-devtools-for-tabs'] instead.
Removed macOS 13 support for WebKit. We recommend to upgrade your macOS version, or keep using an older Playwright version.

Browser Versions

Chromium 145.0.7632.6
Mozilla Firefox 146.0.1
WebKit 26.0

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

Google Chrome 144
Microsoft Edge 144

v1.57.0

2025-12-09T07:41:29Z

Chrome for Testing

Starting with this release, Playwright switches from Chromium, to using Chrome 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, please file an issue.

On Arm64 Linux, Playwright continues to use Chromium.

Breaking Change

After 3 years of being deprecated, we removed page.accessibility from our API. Please use other libraries such as Axe if you need to test page accessibility. See our Node.js guide 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 with locator.describe().
New option steps in locator.click() and locator.drag_to() that configures the number of mousemove events emitted while moving the mouse pointer to the target element.
Network requests issued by Service Workers are now reported and can be routed through the BrowserContext, only in Chromium. You can opt out using the PLAYWRIGHT_DISABLE_SERVICE_WORKER_NETWORK environment variable.
Console messages from Service Workers are dispatched through worker.on("console"). You can opt out of this using the PLAYWRIGHT_DISABLE_SERVICE_WORKER_CONSOLE environment variable.

Browser Versions

Chromium 143.0.7499.4
Mozilla Firefox 144.0.2
WebKit 26.0

v1.56.0

2025-11-11T18:13:39Z

New APIs

New methods page. console_messages() and page.page_errors() for retrieving the most recent console messages from the page
New method page.requests() for retrieving the most recent network requests from the page

Breaking Changes

Event browserContext.on("backgroundpage") has been deprecated and will not be emitted. Method browserContext. background_pages() will return an empty list

Miscellaneous

Aria snapshots render and compare input placeholder

Browser Versions

Chromium 141.0.7390.37
Mozilla Firefox 142.0.1
WebKit 26.0

v1.55.0

2025-08-28T10:43:43Z

Codegen

Automatic to_be_visible() assertions: Codegen can now generate automatic to_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

v1.54.0

2025-07-22T13:43:23Z

Highlights

New cookie property partition_key in BrowserContext.cookies() and browserContext.add_cookies(). This property allows to save and restore partitioned cookies. See CHIPS 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. Use playwright 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

v1.53.0

2025-06-25T16:23:14Z

Miscellaneous

New Steps in Trace Viewer:

New method locator.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

v1.52.0

2025-04-30T09:04:16Z

Highlights

New method expect(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 option max_redirects in apiRequest.new_context() to control the maximum number of redirects.
New option ref in locator.aria_snapshot() to generate reference for each element in the snapshot which can later be used to locate the element.

Breaking Changes

Method route.continue() does not allow to override the Cookie header anymore. If a Cookie header is provided, it will be ignored, and the cookie will be loaded from the browser's cookie store. To set custom cookies, use browserContext.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

v1.51.0

2025-03-18T09:08:47Z

Highlights

New option indexed_db for browserContext.storage_state() allows to save and restore IndexedDB contents. Useful when your application uses IndexedDB API to store authentication tokens, like Firebase Authentication.

Here is an example following the authentication 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 option visible for locator.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 option contrast for methods page.emulate_media() and browser.new_context() allows to emulate the prefers-contrast media feature.
New option fail_on_status_code makes all fetch requests made through the APIRequestContext 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

v1.50.0

2025-02-03T14:36:14Z

Async Pytest Plugin

Playwright's Pytest plugin now has support for Async Fixtures.

Miscellaneous

Added method expect(locator).to_have_accessible_error_message() to assert the Locator points to an element with a given aria 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 of canvas content in traces is error-prone. Display is now disabled by default, and can be enabled via the Display canvas content UI setting.
Call and Network panels now display additional time information.

Breaking

expect(locator).to_be_editable() and locator.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

v1.49.1

2024-12-10T17:24:05Z

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