Close a browser session

Fully terminate a remote browser session and release all resources by calling browser.close() or sending a DELETE request to the session stop endpoint.

Disconnect without closing

Want to detach from a browser without terminating it so you can reconnect later? See Disconnect and Reconnect to a Browser for the graceful disconnect pattern.

Prerequisites

• A Browserless API token from your account dashboard

Steps

Closing a session shuts down the browser process and frees compute resources. Use browser.close() in framework code, or DELETE /session/{id} for REST-managed sessions.

REST API

Use the Session API to create a session, then explicitly terminate it with a DELETE request when finished.

cURL

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Create a session

curl -X POST "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "ttl": 60000,
    "stealth": true
  }'

The response includes a stop field with the DELETE URL:

{
  "id": "d2f5c3a1-8b4e-4c7a-9e6d-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
  "browserQL": "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql?session=d2f5c3a1...",
  "browserWSEndpoint": "wss://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium?session=d2f5c3a1...",
  "stop": "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session/d2f5c3a1...?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
}

2. Close the session

curl -X DELETE "STOP_URL_FROM_STEP_1&force=true"

The force=true parameter ensures the session is terminated immediately, even if a browser is still connected.

JavaScript

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Create a session and do work

const TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";

const sessionResponse = await fetch(
  `https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token=${TOKEN}`,
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({ ttl: 60000, stealth: true }),
  }
);
const session = await sessionResponse.json();
console.log("Session created:", session.id);

2. Close the session

const closeResponse = await fetch(`${session.stop}&force=true`, {
  method: "DELETE",
});
console.log("Session closed:", closeResponse.status === 200 ? "success" : "failed");

3. Check the output

Session created: d2f5c3a1-8b4e-4c7a-9e6d-1a2b3c4d5e6f
Session closed: success

Python

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Install dependencies

pip install requests

2. Create a session and do work

import requests

TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"

session_response = requests.post(
    f"https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token={TOKEN}",
    json={"ttl": 60000, "stealth": True},
)
session = session_response.json()
print("Session created:", session["id"])

3. Close the session

close_response = requests.delete(f"{session['stop']}&force=true")
print("Session closed:", "success" if close_response.ok else "failed")

4. Check the output

Session created: d2f5c3a1-8b4e-4c7a-9e6d-1a2b3c4d5e6f
Session closed: success

Java

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Create a session

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;

String token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
String endpoint = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token=" + token;

HttpClient client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .uri(URI.create(endpoint))
    .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
    .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(
        "{\"ttl\": 60000, \"stealth\": true}"
    ))
    .build();

HttpResponse<String> response = client.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
String body = response.body();
System.out.println("Session created: " + body);

// Parse stop URL from response
int stopStart = body.indexOf("\"stop\":\"") + 8;
int stopEnd = body.indexOf("\"", stopStart);
String stopUrl = body.substring(stopStart, stopEnd);

2. Close the session

HttpRequest deleteRequest = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .uri(URI.create(stopUrl + "&force=true"))
    .DELETE()
    .build();

HttpResponse<String> deleteResponse = client.send(
    deleteRequest, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString()
);
System.out.println("Session closed: " + deleteResponse.statusCode());

3. Check the output

Session created: {"id":"d2f5c3a1-...","stop":"https://...",...}
Session closed: 200

C#

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Create a session

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Json;

var token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
var client = new HttpClient();

var content = new StringContent(
    JsonSerializer.Serialize(new { ttl = 60000, stealth = true }),
    Encoding.UTF8,
    "application/json"
);

var response = await client.PostAsync(
    $"https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token={token}",
    content
);
var body = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var session = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<JsonElement>(body);

var stopUrl = session.GetProperty("stop").GetString();
Console.WriteLine($"Session created: {session.GetProperty("id")}");

2. Close the session

var closeResponse = await client.DeleteAsync($"{stopUrl}&force=true");
Console.WriteLine($"Session closed: {closeResponse.StatusCode}");

3. Check the output

Session created: d2f5c3a1-8b4e-4c7a-9e6d-1a2b3c4d5e6f
Session closed: OK

Frameworks

Call browser.close() to fully terminate the remote browser process and release the Browserless session.

Puppeteer

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Install dependencies

npm install puppeteer-core

2. Connect, do work, and close

import puppeteer from "puppeteer-core";

const TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
  browserWSEndpoint: `wss://production-sfo.browserless.io?token=${TOKEN}`,
});

try {
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto("https://scraping-sandbox.netlify.app/products", { waitUntil: "networkidle2" });

  const title = await page.title();
  console.log("Page title:", title);
} finally {
  await browser.close();
  console.log("Browser closed — session resources released.");
}

3. Check the output

Page title: Product Catalog | Scraping Sandbox
Browser closed — session resources released.

browser.close() terminates the remote browser process. After calling it, the WebSocket connection is severed and the session cannot be reconnected.

Playwright

View Full Code on GitHub

1. Install dependencies

npm install playwright-core

2. Connect, do work, and close

import { chromium } from "playwright-core";

const TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(
  `wss://production-sfo.browserless.io?token=${TOKEN}&stealth`
);

try {
  const context = browser.contexts()[0] ?? await browser.newContext();
  const page = await context.newPage();
  await page.goto("https://scraping-sandbox.netlify.app/products", { waitUntil: "networkidle" });

  const title = await page.title();
  console.log("Page title:", title);
} finally {
  await browser.close();
  console.log("Browser closed — session resources released.");
}

3. Check the output

Page title: Product Catalog | Scraping Sandbox
Browser closed — session resources released.

browser.close() shuts down the remote Chromium process. Use this instead of browser.disconnect() when you are done and do not need to reconnect.

BQL

View Full Code on GitHub

BQL sessions are automatically closed when the mutation completes. For Session API sessions using BQL, terminate them with a DELETE request to the stop URL.

1. Create a session with a BQL endpoint

curl -X POST "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/session?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ttl": 60000, "stealth": true}'

Save the browserQL and stop fields from the response.

2. Run a BQL mutation against the session

mutation CloseExample {
  goto(url: "https://scraping-sandbox.netlify.app/products", waitUntil: networkIdle) {
    status
  }
  text(selector: "h1") {
    text
  }
}

3. Send it

Paste into the BQL IDE and click Run.

4. Close the session

curl -X DELETE "STOP_URL_FROM_STEP_1&force=true"

Without this explicit DELETE, the session remains alive until its TTL expires and continues consuming resources.

5. Check the output

{
  "data": {
    "goto": { "status": 200 },
    "text": { "text": "Product Catalog" }
  }
}