How browser use works
What you get
A live browser
Start it in any running sandbox and watch the page render in real time on the Sandbox page.
Take control
A viewer can take control and use the browser directly, or share a revocable view-only link.
Agent access over CDP
Playwright and Puppeteer connect over CDP and drive the same browser the viewer is watching.
Sandbox-priced
It runs inside the sandbox you already have, so it bills as plain sandbox usage.
How it fits together
- Start. Ask the sandbox to start its browser. It starts lazily on the first request, stays up across pause and resume, and stops when you stop it.
- Watch and drive. The Sandbox page shows the live browser. A viewer can take control; a view-only link can watch but never drive.
- Automate. Playwright or Puppeteer connect to the live browser over CDP and act on the same session a person sees.
Because the viewer and the automation share one browser, a person can open the page mid-run, watch, and take control without losing cookies, logins, or page state.
The three viewers of one browser
| Surface | Who | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| Live viewer on the Sandbox page | The signed-in owner | Watch the browser, take control |
| View-only share link | Anyone with the link | Watch only; cannot drive the browser |
| CDP endpoint | An agent (Playwright, Puppeteer) | Drive the browser over the Chrome DevTools Protocol |