---
id: browser-contexts
title: "Browser Contexts"
---

## Browser context

A [BrowserContext] is an isolated incognito-alike session within a browser instance. Browser contexts are fast and cheap to create. We recommend running each test scenario in its own new Browser context, so that the browser state is isolated between the tests. If you are using [Playwright Test](./intro.md), this happens out of the box for each test. Otherwise, you can create browser contexts manually:

```js
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();
```

```java
Browser browser = chromium.launch();
BrowserContext context = browser.newContext();
Page page = context.newPage();
```

```python async
browser = await playwright.chromium.launch()
context = await browser.new_context()
page = await context.new_page()
```

```python sync
browser = playwright.chromium.launch()
context = browser.new_context()
page = context.new_page()
```

```csharp
await using var browser = playwright.Chromium.LaunchAsync();
var context = await browser.NewContextAsync();
var page = await context.NewPageAsync();
```

Browser contexts can also be used to emulate multi-page scenarios involving
mobile devices, permissions, locale and color scheme.

```js
const { devices } = require('playwright');
const iPhone = devices['iPhone 11 Pro'];

const context = await browser.newContext({
  ...iPhone,
  permissions: ['geolocation'],
  geolocation: { latitude: 52.52, longitude: 13.39},
  colorScheme: 'dark',
  locale: 'de-DE'
});
const page = await context.newPage();
```

```java
// FIXME
import com.microsoft.playwright.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
      BrowserType devices = playwright.devices();
      BrowserContext context = browser.newContext(new Browser.NewContextOptions()
        .setUserAgent("Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 12_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.0 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1")
        .setViewportSize(375, 812)
        .setDeviceScaleFactor(3)
        .setIsMobile(true)
        .setHasTouch(true)
        .setPermissions(Arrays.asList("geolocation"))
        .setGeolocation(52.52, 13.39)
        .setColorScheme(ColorScheme.DARK)
        .setLocale("de-DE"));
      Page page = context.newPage();
    }
  }
}
```

```python async
import asyncio
from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as p:
        iphone_11 = p.devices['iPhone 11 Pro']
        browser = await p.chromium.launch()
        context = await browser.new_context(
            **iphone_11,
            locale='de-DE',
            geolocation={ 'longitude': 12.492507, 'latitude': 41.889938 },
            permissions=['geolocation'],
            color_scheme='dark',
        )
        page = await browser.new_page()
        await browser.close()

asyncio.run(main())
```

```python sync
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    iphone_11 = p.devices['iPhone 11 Pro']
    browser = p.webkit.launch(headless=False)
    context = browser.new_context(
        **iphone_11,
        locale='de-DE',
        geolocation={ 'longitude': 12.492507, 'latitude': 41.889938 },
        permissions=['geolocation']
    )
    page = context.new_page()
    browser.close()
```

```csharp
using Microsoft.Playwright;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class PlaywrightExample
{
    public static async Task Main()
    {
        using var playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
        await using var browser = await playwright.Webkit.LaunchAsync();
        var options = new BrowserNewContextOptions(playwright.Devices["iPhone 11 Pro"])
        {
            Geolocation = new() { Longitude = 12.492507f, Latitude = 41.889938f },
            Permissions = new[] { "geolocation" },
            Locale = "de-DE"
        };

        await using var context = await browser.NewContextAsync(options);
        var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
    }
}
```

## Multiple contexts

[Browser contexts](./browser-contexts.md) are isolated environments on a single browser instance.
Playwright can create multiple browser contexts within a single scenario. This is useful when you want to test for
multi-user functionality, like chat.

```js
const { chromium } = require('playwright');

// Create a Chromium browser instance
const browser = await chromium.launch();

// Create two isolated browser contexts
const userContext = await browser.newContext();
const adminContext = await browser.newContext();

// Create pages and interact with contexts independently
```

```java
import com.microsoft.playwright.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
      BrowserType chromium = playwright.chromium();
      // Create a Chromium browser instance
      Browser browser = chromium.launch();
      // Create two isolated browser contexts
      BrowserContext userContext = browser.newContext();
      BrowserContext adminContext = browser.newContext();
      // Create pages and interact with contexts independently
    }
  }
}
```

```python async
import asyncio
from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

async def run(playwright):
    # create a chromium browser instance
    chromium = playwright.chromium
    browser = await chromium.launch()

    # create two isolated browser contexts
    user_context = await browser.new_context()
    admin_context = await browser.new_context()

    # create pages and interact with contexts independently

async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as playwright:
        await run(playwright)
asyncio.run(main())
```

```python sync
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

def run(playwright):
    # create a chromium browser instance
    chromium = playwright.chromium
    browser = chromium.launch()

    # create two isolated browser contexts
    user_context = browser.new_context()
    admin_context = browser.new_context()

    # create pages and interact with contexts independently

with sync_playwright() as playwright:
    run(playwright)
```

```csharp
using Microsoft.Playwright;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
    public static async Task Main()
    {
        using var playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
        // Create a Chromium browser instance
        await using var browser = await playwright.Chromium.LaunchAsync();
        await using var userContext = await browser.NewContextAsync();
        await using var adminContext = await browser.NewContextAsync();
        // Create pages and interact with contexts independently.
    }
}
```

### API reference
- [BrowserContext]
- [`method: Browser.newContext`]
- [`method: BrowserContext.addCookies`]