Hello, I would like to request access to the browser rendering API. Thanks!
Hello, I would like to request access to the browser rendering API. Thanks!
ZPut your account ID in browser-rendering-apiBrowser Rendering API Beta Access
DThanks!
JWow, I joined this Discord to learn more about the Browser Rendering API. And I'm shocked about the pricing! 
For 5 USD i can execute a simple docker container, that might does not scale, but that wouldn't introduce a private bankruptcy...
For 5 USD i can execute a simple docker container, that might does not scale, but that wouldn't introduce a private bankruptcy...
UBy following this guide, you will create a Worker that uses the Browser Rendering API along with Durable Objects to take screenshots from web pages …
Uis the example code above correct? The browser instance is unconditionally closed in fetch(), which makes the durable object useless for the next call
U@Pedro
Uactually this example seems to have lots of mistakes 
Jhave you figured out how it should be implemented instead?
Uat a minimum:
- remove the
browser.close()line - check that the browser is connected every fetch (
this.browser.isConnected()), and reinstantiate it if not - do not call newPage() every fetch, instead check the browser instance and see if it has the number of pages you need already, from last time
- add an await to the setAlarm call
state.blockConcurrencyWhile() may be the answer, but I haven't tested it yet
PHey @uk, this blog post might be a better example of what you're trying to achieve: https://blog.cloudflare.com/running-serverless-puppeteer-workers-durable-objects/
The Cloudflare Blog
We’ve heard from developers that configuring and maintaining their own serverless browser automation systems can be quite painful. The Workers Browser Rendering API solves this
Uat first glance this is the same code as the linked doc
JOk, I'm completely confused. From what I see here, and from the lack of responses from Cloudflare, the browser rendering API looks like a dangerous endeavor. It won't scale on high load due to the limitations and it's potentially super expensive
PHey @haushoppe, I believe this was previously addressed, mentioning the use of Durable Object as a way to reuse a browser instance without incurring costs for starting a new session
JBut @uk has pointed out that the examples are broken, and the discussion was about keeping the instances running via a cronjob - otherwise it gets expensive
P@haushoppe, we'll review the provided example and update it if necessary. However, the key takeaway is that it's possible to reuse the browser instance without additional costs associated with initiating a new session
JYes, but I have to keep it active within 60 seconds or so. If I somehow fail to update it correctly, then new instances will spawn up and make me poor... 
BHi all, I also have a question about the pricing.
Quoted from the blog post:
If you create a new browser session every 60 seconds, that means 24 hours * 60 minutes = 1440 sessions per day if you have continuous traffic (at least a request per minute...). If you multiply this by 30 days, that would be 43.200 sessions * 0.10$ = $4320
That seems extremely expensive to me, especially if you only have a couple of requests per minute? I argue that running on own infrastructure would be way cheaper, or am I misunderstanding something here?
Quoted from the blog post:
We’ve spoken to many customers deploying a Puppeteer service on their own infrastructure, on public cloud containers or functions or using managed services. The common theme that we’ve heard is that these services are costly – costly to maintain and expensive to run.
If you create a new browser session every 60 seconds, that means 24 hours * 60 minutes = 1440 sessions per day if you have continuous traffic (at least a request per minute...). If you multiply this by 30 days, that would be 43.200 sessions * 0.10$ = $4320
That seems extremely expensive to me, especially if you only have a couple of requests per minute? I argue that running on own infrastructure would be way cheaper, or am I misunderstanding something here?
BAnd this already assumes you are using a durable object to limit the concurrent sessions to #1
BI love the convience so far, but am a little worried about the pricing, how definite are those numbers?
JYeah, the pricing here really doesn’t seem to be competitive, even when compared to more premium solutions such as https://www.browserless.io.
It would be really nice to hear some clarifications and thoughts around the pricing as it exists today, for how it was determined.
It would be really nice to hear some clarifications and thoughts around the pricing as it exists today, for how it was determined.
Try Browserless, one of the best web automation tools for free. Implement web scraping, PDF generation & headless browser automation easily.
USeems browserless allows a lot more concurrency but the charge per session can be more than cloudflare if you keep the session alive with durable objects
You could in theory do 15,000 sessions ($25 on browserless) with a single session on cloudflare ($0.10).
You could in theory do 15,000 sessions ($25 on browserless) with a single session on cloudflare ($0.10).
UAnd the more requests you do keeping a session alive the cheaper it becomes compared to browserless
UMain difference there is you sort of have to manage the load of the durable objects yourself a bit
JIn my opinion, any product that requires a user to scaffold something like a DO to manage things themselves to ensure their pricing doesn’t explode is a really bad design for serverless and the rest of Cloudflare’s product stack.
ZThis is my largest issue with the current pricing. For it to be at all competitive, you need to manage it state fully, which is so opposed to the rest of the product stack
BHow so? I thought a session can live a maximum of 60 seconds as a limit?
BAh wait, you have to keep it warm
ZThey get killed after 60 seconds of inactivity
BA browser instance gets killed if it does not get any command for 60 seconds, freeing one instance.
BMisunderstood that, so you can keep it alive for months on end and only pay for the durable object?
MMaybe, or maybe not it seems. It depends if the DO gets reset or runs out of memory. That question is really what we've been asking since the pricing was announced. So, maybe, but probably not in real world production (at least not for months).
BWhich imo is weird for a cloud product, it should be cost optimised behind the scenes and have competitive per usage pricing imo, if you have a special use case that needs full control over the browser instance lifetimes, they could expose an additional API for lower level control?
PThank you for your feedback. While our current beta has specific limits and procedures, we're open to evolving them based on feedback and common use cases
BHi, let's say I want to set the html programitcally with
setContent and that html runs some javascript that wants to access a large local json file, can puppeteer somehow access the local filestystem of the worker? Or how would this work?BI ended up just embedding the large json directly into a script tag, not sure if it is the most efficient way, but it works
Byea, in fact the json blob is inside r2 already, but it has to stay private, was thinking about using a signed url to generate temporary access, but was wondering if there was a better way. For now directly embedding it into the html (like so:
<script> const json = JSON.parse(${rawJson}; ...) and then use page.setContents works, but not sure if this is a performant way to do it.
JHow do I disable CORS when launching a browser?
PHey @gustavopch, we're still in beta and are actively learning from all the use-cases and great feedback we're getting. This is really helpful for us as we fine-tune our pricing to better suit your needs. Thanks for bearing with us!
PHey @evo4ce, sure, as an update I can tell you that we're considering alternative approaches so that the pricing concerns are addressed, namely, keeping sessions open without the need for the users to manage Durable Objects/state
VAt-least add some reports so that we can calculate how many sessions, requests we are consuming in Beta for better planning the and costs.
VStill the page is not closed/re-used.
So we will end up creating too many stalled pages after few requests.
Add ‘await page.close()’
So we will end up creating too many stalled pages after few requests.
Add ‘await page.close()’
TWould love to test out this Browser rendering API.
Currently using Google cloud for puppeteer lambdas for email preview renders etc, but dis too slow for meh. Joined the beta access waitlist
Currently using Google cloud for puppeteer lambdas for email preview renders etc, but dis too slow for meh. Joined the beta access waitlist
VTo get access tomorrow, please drop your account ID in the thread: Browser Rendering API Beta Access
BIs there a way to quickly get browser rendering access in worker?
BThanks you @Vero 
, got it.
, got it.