Chrome specific functionality

By default, Selenium 4 is compatible with Chrome v75 and greater. Note that the version of the Chrome browser and the version of chromedriver must match the major version.

Options

Capabilities common to all browsers are described on the Options page.

Capabilities unique to Chrome can be found at Google’s page for Capabilities & ChromeOptions

Starting a Chrome session with basic defined options looks like this:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    options = ChromeOptions()
    driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)

      var options = new ChromeOptions();
      var driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome
    @driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome, options: options

      const Options = new Chrome.Options();
      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(Options)
        .build();

Here are a few common use cases with different capabilities:

Arguments

The args parameter is for a list of Command Line Switches used when starting the browser. Commonly used args include --start-maximized and --headless=new

Add an argument to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        options.addArguments("--headless=new");
        driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    chrome_options = ChromeOptions()
    chrome_options.add_argument("--headless=new")

      var options = new ChromeOptions();
      options.AddArgument("--headless=new");
      var driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome(args: ['--headless=new'])

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.addArguments('--headless=new'))
        .build();

Start browser in a specified location

The binary parameter takes the path of an alternate location of browser to use. With this parameter you can use chromedriver to drive various Chromium based browsers.

Add a browser location to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.setChromeBinaryPath(`Path to chrome binary`))
        .build();

Add extensions

The extensions parameter accepts crx files. As for unpacked directories, please use the load-extension argument instead, as mentioned in this post.

Add an extension to options:

Keeping browser open

Setting the detach parameter to true will keep the browser open after the driver process has been quit.

Add a binary to options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        options.setExperimentalOption("detach", true);
        driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

    chrome_options = ChromeOptions()
    chrome_options.add_experimental_option("detach", True)

    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome(detach: true)

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.detachDriver(true))
        .build();

Excluding arguments

Chrome adds various arguments, if you do not want those arguments added, pass them into excludeSwitches. A common example is to turn the popup blocker back on.

Set excluded arguments on options:

• Java
• Python
• CSharp
• Ruby
• JavaScript
• Kotlin

    chrome_options = ChromeOptions()
    chrome_options.add_experimental_option('excludeSwitches', ['enable-automation'])

    options = Selenium::WebDriver::Options.chrome(exclude_switches: ['enable-automation'])

      let driver = await env
        .builder()
        .setChromeOptions(options.excludeSwitches('enable-automation'))
        .build();

Casting

You can drive Chrome Cast devices, including sharing tabs

Network conditions

You can simulate various network conditions.

The following examples are for local webdrivers. For remote webdrivers, please refer to the Remote WebDriver page.

Logs

Permissions

DevTools

See the Chrome DevTools section for more information about using Chrome DevTools