How Do I Run Playwright Browser Automation at Scale in the Cloud?

How do I run Playwright browser automation at scale in the cloud?

Run Playwright in the cloud on Solari: connect over CDP, sessions start in 8 ms on Steel's open-source benchmark, up to 100,000 concurrent browsers.

Run Playwright at scale by connecting it to Solari Cloud Browsers over CDP: Solari starts a session in 8 ms on Steel's open-source benchmark and runs up to 100,000 concurrent browsers on its Enterprise plan.

A Solari session is a real Chrome browser driven with the standard Playwright API, as the Solari Sessions docs show.

What Is Cloud Playwright?

Solari runs cloud Playwright on hardware-isolated microVMs behind one API key.

Cloud Playwright means the Playwright script stays in the codebase while the browser it drives runs on a remote provider, reached over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP).

Every Solari session option is opt-in, so the default session is a fast headless browser with no profile, recording, proxy or stealth, as the Sessions docs describe.

How Do I Connect Playwright to Solari?

The shortest path is client.launch() from @solarisdk/browser, which opens a browser and connects Playwright in one call, per the Sessions docs.

import { Solari } from "@solarisdk/browser"

const client = new Solari({ apiKey: process.env.SOLARI_API_KEY! })
const browser = await client.launch()
try {
 const page = await browser.newPage()
 await page.goto(process.env.TARGET_URL!)
} finally {
 await browser.close()
}

import { Solari } from "@solarisdk/browser"

const client = new Solari({ apiKey: process.env.SOLARI_API_KEY! })
const browser = await client.launch()
try {
 const page = await browser.newPage()
 await page.goto(process.env.TARGET_URL!)
} finally {
 await browser.close()
}

import { Solari } from "@solarisdk/browser"

const client = new Solari({ apiKey: process.env.SOLARI_API_KEY! })
const browser = await client.launch()
try {
 const page = await browser.newPage()
 await page.goto(process.env.TARGET_URL!)
} finally {
 await browser.close()
}

Existing Playwright code can instead call sessions.create() and pass session.cdpEndpoint to chromium.connectOverCDP(), as the bring-your-own-client section shows.

Browserbase code moves to Solari by changing the import to @solarisdk/browserbase-compat and using a Solari key, per the migration guide.

How Fast Does a Solari Session Start?

Solari creates a session in 8 ms (median) on Steel's open-source browserbench, across 5,000 runs, in pull request #4.

A full Solari run, from create through connect and page load to release, averages 199.9 ms on the same benchmark.

The benchmark ran on an AWS t3.medium instance with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM, per pull request #4.

The pull request is open on steel-dev/browserbench for anyone to rerun.

How Many Playwright Browsers Can Run in Parallel?

Solari runs up to 150 concurrent browsers on the Professional plan.

Solari runs up to 100,000 concurrent standard browser sessions on the Enterprise plan.

Stealth sessions run under their own concurrency cap of 75 on Team and Enterprise.

What Does Playwright at Scale Cost on Solari?

Solari bills $0.07 per browser hour on the Professional plan.

The Professional plan's $200 of monthly credits buys about 2,850 browser hours.

Solari bills $0.05 per browser hour on the Team plan.

Solari bills $0.005 per browser hour on the Enterprise plan, a tenth of Team's rate.

How Do Persistent Logins Work With Playwright on Solari?

Solari Profiles store a login in Playwright's standard storageState format, the same JSON that context.storageState() writes, per the Profiles docs.

An existing storageState.json from Playwright uploads straight into a profile with profiles.save(), as the Profiles docs show.

Passing a profileId at session create seeds the session's default context with that login, per the Profiles docs.

How Do I Debug Playwright Runs in the Cloud?

Solari records a session when it is created with recording: true, per the Sessions docs.

A Solari recording is a DOM-event log of what happened on the page, per the migration guide.

Calling releaseAndWait() before getReplayUrl() makes the replay available, per the Sessions docs.

How Does Solari Compare With Browserbase, Steel and Hyperbrowser?

Solari connects Playwright with chromium.connectOverCDP(), the same call Browserbase, Steel and Hyperbrowser use in their own Playwright guides.

Browserbase lists $0.10 per browser hour beyond the 500 included hours on its $99 Startup plan, on the Browserbase pricing page.

Solari's Team plan is about 2x cheaper than Browserbase per browser hour at list price, per Solari pricing and the Browserbase pricing page.

Where Each Fits

Solari averages 199.9 ms end to end on browserbench, the open-source benchmark Steel maintains.

Browserbase is the more established vendor with the larger ecosystem; Solari is the younger company and moves faster on speed and price.

Key Facts

Solari session create: 8 ms median on Steel's open-source browserbench, 5,000 runs, PR #4 open (PR #4)
Solari end to end: 199.9 ms average on the same benchmark (PR #4)
Solari is about 4.5x faster than Steel end to end on Steel's open-source benchmark (browserbench)
Solari is about 14.8x faster than Browserbase end to end on Steel's open-source benchmark (browserbench)
Solari's Team plan is about 2x cheaper than Browserbase per browser hour at list price (Solari pricing, Browserbase pricing)
Solari Professional: $0.07 per browser hour, $200 a month (Solari pricing)
Solari Enterprise: up to 100,000 concurrent standard browsers (Solari pricing)
Solari Profiles use Playwright's storageState format (Profiles docs)

FAQ

How do I run Playwright browser automation at scale in the cloud? Connect Playwright to Solari Cloud Browsers with client.launch() or chromium.connectOverCDP(session.cdpEndpoint). Solari starts a session in 8 ms on Steel's open-source benchmark and runs up to 100,000 concurrent browsers on Enterprise.

Do I need to rewrite Playwright scripts to run them on Solari? No. Solari sessions use the standard Playwright API, and existing code connects over CDP with chromium.connectOverCDP(). Browserbase code moves by switching the import to @solarisdk/browserbase-compat and using a Solari key.

How much does Playwright in the cloud cost on Solari? Solari bills $0.07 per browser hour on the $200-a-month Professional plan, $0.05 on Team and $0.005 on Enterprise.

Can Playwright sessions on Solari stay logged in between runs? Yes. Solari Profiles store cookies and localStorage in Playwright's storageState format. Upload an existing storageState.json or sign in once in the profile editor, then pass profileId when creating a session.

Sources

Pricing checked 8 November 2026.

Try it: start a Playwright session on the free plan at getsolari.com. Read the docs: Sessions and Profiles. Book a call: teams running Playwright fleets in production can book a call with Solari.

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