Browser-as-a-Service

Browser-as-a-Service (BaaS) gives you a real, remote Chromium browser you drive with Playwright or Puppeteer over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). It runs on our infrastructure behind residential IPs with anti-bot bypass built in.

:::tip Free trial BaaS is included on the free trial. Residential proxy is applied automatically — direct proxy URLs unlock with PAYG or a paid plan. :::

There is nothing to create and no session to manage. You connect your automation library to a single WebSocket URL with your API key, and a fresh browser is provisioned for you on the spot:

wss://browser.omniscrape.io?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

For local development against the gateway on port 8080:

ws://localhost:8080/v1/browser?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

When you disconnect (or call browser.close()), the browser is torn down automatically and the session is billed by connection time.

When to use BaaS vs Web Unlocker

Need	Use
Fetch a page's content	Web Unlocker
Render a SPA and read it	Web Unlocker (js_rendering)
Click, type, navigate steps	BaaS
Log in and keep a live session	BaaS

Connect

Playwright (Node.js)

import { chromium } from "playwright";

const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(
  `wss://browser.omniscrape.io?apikey=${process.env.OMNISCRAPE_KEY}`
);

const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto("https://example.com/login");
await page.fill("#email", "user@example.com");
await page.fill("#password", "••••••••");
await page.click("button[type=submit]");
await page.waitForSelector(".dashboard");
console.log(await page.title());

await browser.close(); // ends the session and stops billing

Playwright (Python)

import os
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

ws = f"wss://browser.omniscrape.io?apikey={os.environ['OMNISCRAPE_KEY']}"

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.connect_over_cdp(ws)
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")
    print(page.title())
    browser.close()  # ends the session and stops billing

Puppeteer (Node.js)

import puppeteer from "puppeteer-core";

const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
  browserWSEndpoint: `wss://browser.omniscrape.io?apikey=${process.env.OMNISCRAPE_KEY}`,
});

const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto("https://example.com");
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();

Connection options

Pass options as query parameters on the WebSocket URL:

Parameter	Default	Description
apikey	—	Required. Your API key.
proxy_country	auto	Route the browser through a country, e.g. proxy_country=us. See Proxies.
render_media	false	Load images, fonts, and media. true is billed at the higher rate.
session_id	—	Reuse the same IP across reconnects for sticky flows.

const url =
  "wss://browser.omniscrape.io" +
  `?apikey=${process.env.OMNISCRAPE_KEY}` +
  "&proxy_country=de" +
  "&render_media=true";

const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(url);

Billing

BaaS is billed by connection time — the meter starts when you connect and stops when you disconnect or call browser.close():

Mode	Rate
Standard (render_media=false)	$0.02 / minute
Full media (render_media=true)	$0.10 / minute

Always close the browser when you're done so the meter stops. See Pricing.

Tips

• Keep render_media=false unless you specifically need images — it's 5× cheaper and faster.
• Reuse one connection for a whole multi-step flow instead of reconnecting per action.
• Use waitForSelector rather than fixed sleeps for reliability.
• Wrap your automation in try/finally and always close() in finally, so a crash doesn't leave the meter running.
• For simple "render and read" tasks, Web Unlocker is cheaper — reach for BaaS only when you need real interaction.