Kitesurf

Kitesurf is Cloudflare's stateless browser for AI agents and automation workflows. It is designed to run on Workers and to handle page rendering, screenshots, and HTML extraction with lower CPU and memory use than Chromium for common agentic tasks.

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Overview

Kitesurf is Cloudflare's stateless browser for AI agents and automation workflows. It runs on top of Workers and is designed around the needs of agentic browsing rather than the full feature set of a human-facing desktop browser.

Cloudflare positions Kitesurf as a lighter alternative to Chromium for tasks such as screenshots and HTML extraction. The main trade-off is lower CPU and memory use in exchange for slower wall time in some cases and rendering that is not pixel-perfect.

Features

Stateless browser sessions

Kitesurf is built as an ephemeral browser that exists only for the duration of a task, which fits one-shot automation and bursty agent workloads.

Lower resource use for common tasks

For screenshots and HTML extraction, Cloudflare reports significantly lower CPU and memory use than Chromium, helping reduce resource demand when scaling many sessions.

Browser Run CDP support

Kitesurf can be selected on the Browser Run CDP endpoint, so existing Puppeteer, Playwright, chrome-remote-interface, and other CDP-speaking agents can use it by adding browser=kitesurf.

Quick Actions support

Kitesurf also works with Browser Run Quick Actions, allowing tasks such as screenshot generation or content extraction without building a full browser automation flow.

Public playground for compatibility checks

The playground lets users enter a URL and see how Kitesurf renders it before wiring it into code, which helps confirm whether a site behaves as expected.

Web-platform standards coverage

Cloudflare says Kitesurf is tested against Web Platform Tests and that its coverage is expanding, with strong coverage in areas such as DOM, HTML, selection, SVG, encoding, CORS, and XHR.

Use cases

AI agents that need lightweight page rendering
Use Kitesurf when an agent needs to load and interact with pages but does not require a full desktop browser experience.
One-shot extraction and screenshot workflows
Kitesurf is suitable for quick tasks that need a page snapshot or extracted HTML, especially when the workflow can use a Quick Action endpoint.
Burst workloads with many short-lived sessions
Teams running many independent browser sessions can use Kitesurf to keep memory and CPU usage lower across a large number of ephemeral tasks.
Browser compatibility testing on specific pages
The public playground can be used to test whether a URL renders correctly before adding it to an automation or agent workflow.
Existing CDP-based automation
Because Kitesurf works through the CDP endpoint, existing browser automation setups can opt in without changing tools, only the browser parameter.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Uses less CPU and memory than Chromium for common agentic tasks.
Runs stateless and ephemeral, which suits short-lived automation sessions.
Works with Browser Run CDP and Quick Actions.
Can be used from existing Puppeteer, Playwright, and other CDP-compatible clients.
Includes a playground for testing rendering and interaction before coding against a site.

Cons

Not intended for pixel-perfect rendering.
Does not yet support video or WebGL.
Not the right choice for long-running authenticated sessions that need persistent state.

FAQ

How do I use Kitesurf in Browser Run?

Add browser=kitesurf to a Browser Run CDP endpoint or to a Quick Action endpoint. Cloudflare provides examples for both connection methods.

Which automation tools can work with Kitesurf?

Cloudflare says existing tools that speak CDP already work, including Puppeteer, Playwright, chrome-remote-interface, and AI agents that use MCP and CDP.

What kinds of tasks is Kitesurf best for?

It is aimed at AI agents and automation that need page rendering, screenshots, or HTML extraction, especially when lower CPU and memory use matter more than full browser features.

What are the main limitations of Kitesurf?

Cloudflare says it is not yet suitable for video, WebGL, real TLS fingerprint negotiation for bot challenges, or long-running authenticated sessions that rely on persistent state.

Can I test a site before using it in production?

Yes. Cloudflare offers a public playground where you can enter a URL, inspect how it renders, and view console and network activity while testing compatibility.