---
id: installation
title: "Installation"
---

<!-- TOC -->

## Managing browser binaries

Each version of Playwright needs specific versions of browser binaries to operate. By default Playwright downloads Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers into the OS-specific cache folders:

- `%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ms-playwright` on Windows
- `~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright` on MacOS
- `~/.cache/ms-playwright` on Linux

```sh
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install
```

These browsers will take few hundreds of megabytes of the disk space when installed:

```sh
$ du -hs ./Library/Caches/ms-playwright/*
281M  chromium-XXXXXX
187M  firefox-XXXX
180M  webkit-XXXX
```

You can override default behavior using environment variables. When installing Playwright, ask it to download browsers into a specific location:

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ pip install playwright
$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers python -m playwright install

# Windows
$ set PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=%USERPROFILE%\pw-browsers
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install
```

When running Playwright scripts, ask it to search for browsers in a shared location:

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers python playwright_script.js

# Windows
$ set PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=%USERPROFILE%\pw-browsers
$ python playwright_script.py
```

Or you can opt into the hermetic install and place binaries under the `site-packages/playwright` folder:

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ pip install playwright
$ PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0 python -m playwright install

# Windows
$ set PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install
```

Playwright keeps track of packages that need those browsers and will garbage collect them as you update Playwright to the newer versions.

:::note
Developers can opt-in in this mode via exporting `PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=$HOME/pw-browsers` in their `.bashrc`.
:::

## Download from artifact repository

By default, Playwright downloads browsers from Microsoft and Google public CDNs.

Sometimes companies maintain an internal artifact repository to host browser
binaries. In this case, Playwright can be configured to download from a custom
location using the `PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST` env variable.

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ pip install playwright
$ PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST=192.168.1.78 python -m playwright install

# Windows
$ set PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST=192.168.1.78
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install
```

It is also possible to use a per-browser download hosts using `PLAYWRIGHT_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD_HOST`, `PLAYWRIGHT_FIREFOX_DOWNLOAD_HOST` and `PLAYWRIGHT_WEBKIT_DOWNLOAD_HOST` env variables that
take precedence over `PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST`.

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ pip install playwright
$ PLAYWRIGHT_FIREFOX_DOWNLOAD_HOST=192.168.1.1 PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST=192.168.1.78 python -m playwright install
```

## Skip browser downloads

In certain cases, it is desired to avoid browser downloads altogether because
browser binaries are managed separately.

This can be done by setting `PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD` variable before installation.

```sh
# Linux/macOS
$ pip install playwright
$ PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD=1 python -m playwright install

# Windows
$ set PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD=1
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install
```

## Download single browser binary

Playwright downloads Chromium, Firefox and WebKit browsers by default. To install a specific browser, pass it as an argument during installation.

```sh
$ pip install playwright
$ python -m playwright install firefox
```