Compare / versions

Chrome 156 (beta) vs Chrome 154

Two majors ahead of stable, measured on the fleet: what 155 and 156 add and remove, which of it a page can already detect in the beta, what is identical on the wire, and what you can set before 156 ships.

Google Chrome

Chrome 154 has been stable since 22 September 2026. The fleet's channel: "beta" currently launches Chrome 156 (156.0.8078.4, in beta since 30 September), with 157 on dev; 155 is between them and already behind the beta. So this page compares the browser most of your visitors run today with the one they will run in a few weeks, two release notes apart. Below: what Google shipped in 155 and 156, what we could measure as different from inside a page and on the wire, which of those differences matter for detection, and what can be configured — by you in the launch, by us on the fleet, or by nobody.

What 155 added

From the Chrome 155 beta post. Items marked measured show up in the probe table; "not exposed" means our probe found the API or property absent in the 156 beta build — behind a flag, in an origin trial, or shipped in a form we didn't probe.

CSS: symbols() for inline counter styles (measured: present in 156, absent in 154); margin-trim (measured: present in 156); text-decoration-skip-spaces (not exposed); the corner shorthands that set border-radius and corner-shape together (not exposed).
JavaScript: failed module loads can be retried with another import(); Import Text — import … with { type: "text" }.
Web APIs: Additional Windowing Controls (window.maximize(), minimize(), restore(), setResizable(), gated by the window-management permission — not exposed to a plain page); post-quantum algorithms in WebCrypto (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, X-Wing) plus ChaCha20-Poly1305; Digital Credentials issuance to mobile wallets; JPEG XL decoding (image/jxl); the media-playback-while-not-visible permission policy (measured: present in 156); linear canvas colour spaces srgb-linear and display-p3-linear (not exposed); new HTML insertion and streaming methods such as streamAppendHTML() (not exposed); custom request headers and responseHeaders on WebTransport.

What 156 adds

From the Chrome 156 release notes.

CSS: random() for random numeric values (measured: present in 156); scroll-snap-type: pair (measured: present in 156); a pseudo-class for the element that started a navigation; text-decoration-inset (listed again; not exposed in this beta); optional descriptors in @property; single-axis scroll containers (overflow: scroll clip).
Network: compression-dictionary transport updates (rel=compression-dictionary — supported in both builds); WebTransport request headers and responseHeaders; module-load retry.
Storage and security: IndexedDB rewritten on SQLite for new stores; Local Network Access restrictions — requests to local and loopback addresses need the new local-network / loopback-network permissions.
Graphics and media: WGSL @builtin(frag_depth) with less/greater modifiers; a WebRTC diagnostic-logging API for authorised apps.
Removal: the <fencedframe> element and window.fence are stubbed, with phased removal starting in 157 (measured: still present in both 154 and 156).

What is identical

Everything on the wire: JA4, peetprint, the Akamai HTTP/2 fingerprint and the header order are the same in 156 and 154 (the JA3 hash differs between any two Chrome runs because of GREASE — never use it to compare builds). Canvas output, the WebGL strings, screen and window metrics, plugins, permissions and navigator.webdriver (false on the fleet) are identical too, and a plain-http:// URL loads directly in both (Playwright disables Chromium's HTTPS upgrades, see Chrome 154 vs 153). Timings differ only by proxy luck.

What affects detection

The version is declared in four places and they must agree: the reduced user agent (Chrome/156.0.0.0), the sec-ch-ua header, navigator.userAgentData.brands and the high-entropy fullVersionList. 156 also moves the GREASE token first and changes it (Not:A-Brand;8 ahead of Chromium;156 and Google Chrome;156; in 154 it was Not A(Brand;99 last). Spoofing the UA string alone leaves the client hints on the old version.
Five cheap feature probes separate 156 from 154: CSS.supports("margin-trim", …), CSS.supports("list-style-type", "symbols(…)"), CSS.supports("width", "random(…)"), CSS.supports("scroll-snap-type", "pair") and document.featurePolicy.features() containing media-playback-while-not-visible. A "Chrome 156" user agent on a 154 engine fails all five; a 156 engine with a "Chrome 154" user agent passes them — equally suspicious.
A beta user agent is itself a signal. Most real visitors run stable; a 156 UA while 154 is current puts you in a small cohort. Use channel: "beta" to test what breaks before it ships, not to blend in.
Local Network Access permissions change what a page may fetch from private addresses; on the fleet the browser's "local network" is ours and unreachable to sessions, so nothing changes for you, but scripts that probe permissions.query({ name: "local-network" }) get a new answer in 156.
Nothing changed at the TLS or HTTP/2 layer, so anti-bot systems keyed on Chrome 154's JA4 keep matching 156; only JavaScript-level version checks move. Post-quantum WebCrypto algorithms are a future async probe (crypto.subtle with ML-KEM), not something a server sees in the handshake.

Configurable — by you, by us, by nobody

Item	Who controls it	How
Which major runs	You	`channel: "beta"` for 156 today, `"dev"` for 157, nothing for stable (154). When 156 goes stable, 154 becomes a pinned previous major for a while (`version: "154"`). See Chrome.
Features that exist but aren't exposed yet (`corner`, `streamAppendHTML`, windowing controls, linear canvas)	cdpfleet (launch flags)	Chromium `--enable-features` / `--enable-blink-features` switches are set by the fleet, not by launch options. Tell us if you need one for testing.
Local Network Access permissions	Not relevant on the fleet	The browser runs on our servers; sessions can't reach our local network either way.
Ask before HTTP (the `http://` warning)	Playwright / cdpfleet	Off for fleet sessions through Playwright's `--disable-features=…HttpsUpgrades…` (measured: `http://` loaded directly in both builds).
`<fencedframe>` / `window.fence`	Nobody	Stubbed in 156, removed from 157 on; still present in both builds we measured.
Privacy Sandbox APIs (`requestStorageAccessFor`, Shared Storage, Attribution Reporting)	Nobody	Already gone in 154 and 156 (`document.browsingTopics` and `joinAdInterestGroup` are still present in both).
Fingerprint surface (UA, client hints, canvas, WebGL, screen)	You, per context	Unchanged between the versions; `newContext` options as before, or Camoufox when the identity itself must change.

Measured on the fleet (2026-10-05)

One headful launch of each on the production fleet through the same proxy, probed from inside a page and via tls.peet.ws. Timings are a single sample; core counts are the node's.

Launch and cost

Single run; timings depend on the proxy and on fleet load.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
Launch body	{"headless":false,"channel":"beta"}	{"headless":false}
Threads used	2 (linux_headful)	2 (linux_headful)
Browser version	156.0.8078.4	154.0.8037.97
Launch request → browser ready	0.7 s	0.7 s
Playwright connect	0.0 s	0.1 s
Load example.com	0.5 s	1.0 s
Load tls.peet.ws/api/all	2.4 s	2.5 s

What the network sees

From tls.peet.ws/api/all, requested by the browser itself. JA3 hashes change between runs of the same build (GREASE), so compare JA4 and the HTTP/2 fingerprint.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
HTTP version	h2	h2
JA4	t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99	t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99
Peetprint hash	fc97c1cdfb1409c9a9326c1b726d1dee	fc97c1cdfb1409c9a9326c1b726d1dee
Akamai HTTP/2 fingerprint	1:65536;2:0;4:6291456;6:262144\|15663105\|0\|m,a,s,p	1:65536;2:0;4:6291456;6:262144\|15663105\|0\|m,a,s,p
Cipher suites / extensions	16 / 19	16 / 19
Header order (first 12)	method, authority, scheme, path, sec-ch-ua, sec-ch-ua-mobile, sec-ch-ua-platform, upgrade-insecure-requests, user-agent, accept, sec-fetch-site, sec-fetch-mode	method, authority, scheme, path, sec-ch-ua, sec-ch-ua-mobile, sec-ch-ua-platform, upgrade-insecure-requests, user-agent, accept, sec-fetch-site, sec-fetch-mode

What page scripts see

Read with page.evaluate on example.com. Cores and memory are the server's and vary between fleet nodes.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
navigator.userAgent	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/156.0.0.0 Safari/537.36	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
UA-CH brands	Not:A-Brand 8 · Chromium 156 · Google Chrome 156	Chromium 154 · Google Chrome 154 · Not A(Brand 99
UA-CH full version list	Not:A-Brand 8.0.0.0 · Chromium 156.0.8078.4 · Google Chrome 156.0.8078.4	Chromium 154.0.8037.97 · Google Chrome 154.0.8037.97 · Not A(Brand 99.0.0.0
navigator.platform / vendor	Linux x86_64 / Google Inc.	Linux x86_64 / Google Inc.
Languages	en-US, en	en-US, en
Timezone / locale	UTC / en-US	UTC / en-US
Screen (w×h×availW×availH×depth)	1280x720x1280x720x24	1280x720x1280x720x24
Window outer / inner / DPR	1288x805 / 1280x720 / 1	1288x805 / 1280x720 / 1
hardwareConcurrency / deviceMemory	48 / 32	64 / 32
WebGL vendor	Google Inc. (Google)	Google Inc. (Google)
WebGL renderer	ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver)	ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver)
WebGL version	WebGL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0 Chromium)	WebGL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0 Chromium)
WebGPU (navigator.gpu)	yes	yes
Canvas hash	f5a94624	f5a94624
navigator.webdriver	no	no
window.chrome / navigator.connection	yes / yes	yes / yes
Plugins / PDF viewer	5 / yes	5 / yes
Notification.permission / permissions.query	default / prompt	default / prompt

Web platform features

Presence probes; a user agent that claims one version while exposing another's features is a detectable inconsistency.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
`Iterator.prototype.includes` (new in Chrome 154)	yes	yes
`FontFace.width` (new in Chrome 154)	yes	yes
CSS `text-decoration-inset` (new in Chrome 154)	no	no
`Iterator.prototype.join` (Chrome 153)	yes	yes
`Iterator.zip` (Chrome 153)	yes	yes
CSS `scroll-axis-lock` (Chrome 153)	no	no
`<camera>` element (Chrome 153)	yes	yes
`document.requestStorageAccessFor` (deprecated in 153)	no	no
Topics API (`document.browsingTopics`)	yes	yes
Protected Audience (`navigator.joinAdInterestGroup`)	yes	yes
Shared Storage (`window.sharedStorage`)	no	no
Attribution Reporting (`window.attributionReporting`)	no	no
Private Aggregation	no	no
WebHID (`navigator.hid`)	yes	yes
CSS `margin-trim` (Chrome 155)	yes	no
CSS `text-decoration-skip-spaces` (Chrome 155)	no	no
CSS `corner` shorthand (Chrome 155)	no	no
CSS `symbols()` (Chrome 155)	yes	no
`Element.streamAppendHTML` (Chrome 155)	no	no
`WebTransport.reliability` (Chrome 155)	no	no
`window.maximize()` — Additional Windowing Controls (Chrome 155)	no	no
Canvas `srgb-linear` colour space (Chrome 155)	no	no
Permission policy `media-playback-while-not-visible` (Chrome 155)	yes	no
CSS `random()` (Chrome 156)	yes	no
CSS `scroll-snap-type: pair` (Chrome 156)	yes	no
Fenced frames (`window.fence`) — removal starts in 157	yes	yes
`rel=compression-dictionary` (Chrome 156 updates)	yes	yes

bot.sannysoft.com

The classic headless-detection test page; what it marks red.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
Checks / failed	57 / 1	57 / 1
Failed checks	WebGL Renderer	WebGL Renderer

A plain-HTTP URL (http://ip-api.com/json)

Chrome 154 warns before loading insecure HTTP by default — does that reach an automated session?

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
Final URL	http://ip-api.com/json/?fields=status	http://ip-api.com/json/?fields=status
HTTP status	200	200
Content loaded / warning page first	yes / no	yes / no

Playwright over the remote connection

Which client features work on this side.

	Chrome 156 beta	Chrome 154
page.evaluate runs in the page's own world	yes	yes
addInitScript visible to page scripts	yes	yes
Console events	yes	yes
Request interception (page.route)	yes	yes
Screenshot	yes	yes
PDF	yes	yes
Mobile device emulation	yes	yes
Tracing	yes	yes

Rows where the two sides differ are highlighted. IP addresses are replaced with placeholders (203.0.113.x). The probe is compare/probe.mjs in our repository; the raw result is below.

Raw output

{
  "ran_at": "2026-10-05T21:09:52.065Z",
  "sides": [
    {
      "label": "Chrome 156 beta",
      "engine": "chrome",
      "body": {
        "headless": false,
        "channel": "beta"
      },
      "launch": {
        "browser": "chrome",
        "resource_class": "linux_headful",
        "weight": 2,
        "launch_ms": 669,
        "connect_ms": 40,
        "example_ms": 470,
        "peet_ms": 2405
      },
      "network": {
        "http_version": "h2",
        "ja4": "t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99",
        "ja3_hash": "9c429a8ece1d6d255c17d625673fa006",
        "peetprint_hash": "fc97c1cdfb1409c9a9326c1b726d1dee",
        "ciphers": 16,
        "extensions": 19,
        "akamai_h2": "1:65536;2:0;4:6291456;6:262144|15663105|0|m,a,s,p",
        "akamai_h2_hash": "52d84b11737d980aef856699f885ca86",
        "header_order": [
          "method",
          "authority",
          "scheme",
          "path",
          "sec-ch-ua",
          "sec-ch-ua-mobile",
          "sec-ch-ua-platform",
          "upgrade-insecure-requests",
          "user-agent",
          "accept",
          "sec-fetch-site",
          "sec-fetch-mode"
        ]
      },
      "page": {
        "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/156.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        "platform": "Linux x86_64",
        "vendor": "Google Inc.",
        "languages": [
          "en-US",
          "en"
        ],
        "hardware_concurrency": 48,
        "device_memory": 32,
        "max_touch_points": 0,
        "webdriver": false,
        "plugins": 5,
        "pdf_viewer": true,
        "ua_data": {
          "brands": [
            {
              "brand": "Not:A-Brand",
              "version": "8"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "156"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Google Chrome",
              "version": "156"
            }
          ],
          "mobile": false,
          "platform": "Linux",
          "architecture": "x86",
          "bitness": "64",
          "formFactors": [
            "Desktop"
          ],
          "fullVersionList": [
            {
              "brand": "Not:A-Brand",
              "version": "8.0.0.0"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "156.0.8078.4"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Google Chrome",
              "version": "156.0.8078.4"
            }
          ],
          "model": "",
          "platformVersion": "",
          "uaFullVersion": "156.0.8078.4",
          "wow64": false
        },
        "screen": "1280x720x1280x720x24",
        "window": {
          "outer": "1288x805",
          "inner": "1280x720",
          "dpr": 1
        },
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "locale": "en-US",
        "webgl": {
          "vendor": "Google Inc. (Google)",
          "renderer": "ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver)",
          "version": "WebGL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0 Chromium)"
        },
        "canvas_hash": "f5a94624",
        "webgpu": true,
        "chrome_object": true,
        "chrome_runtime": false,
        "notification_permission": "default",
        "notification_query": "prompt",
        "has_focus": true,
        "connection_api": true,
        "stack_read_by_debugger": false,
        "features": {
          "iterator_includes": true,
          "iterator_join": true,
          "iterator_zip": true,
          "fontface_width": true,
          "css_text_decoration_inset": false,
          "css_scroll_axis_lock": false,
          "websocket_options_bag": null,
          "camera_element": true,
          "topics_api": true,
          "protected_audience": true,
          "shared_storage": false,
          "attribution_reporting": false,
          "request_storage_access_for": false,
          "webhid": true,
          "private_aggregation": false,
          "css_margin_trim": true,
          "css_text_decoration_skip_spaces": false,
          "css_corner_shorthand": false,
          "css_symbols": true,
          "stream_append_html": false,
          "webtransport_reliability": false,
          "window_maximize": false,
          "media_display_state": true,
          "canvas_srgb_linear": false,
          "policy_media_playback_while_not_visible": true,
          "css_random": true,
          "css_scroll_snap_pair": true,
          "fenced_frames": true,
          "compression_dictionary": true
        }
      },
      "page_main_world": null,
      "sannysoft": {
        "checks": 57,
        "failed": 1,
        "failed_names": [
          "WebGL Renderer"
        ],
        "passed": 30
      },
      "plain_http": {
        "final_url": "http://ip-api.com/json/?fields=status",
        "status": 200,
        "title": "",
        "loaded": true,
        "warning_page": false,
        "page_text": "{\"status\":\"success\"}"
      },
      "playwright": {
        "evaluate_in_main_world": true,
        "console_events": true,
        "init_script": true,
        "route": true,
        "screenshot": true,
        "pdf": true,
        "mobile_emulation": true,
        "tracing": true
      },
      "browser_version": "156.0.8078.4"
    },
    {
      "label": "Chrome 154",
      "engine": "chrome",
      "body": {
        "headless": false
      },
      "launch": {
        "browser": "chrome",
        "resource_class": "linux_headful",
        "weight": 2,
        "launch_ms": 719,
        "connect_ms": 128,
        "example_ms": 956,
        "peet_ms": 2543
      },
      "network": {
        "http_version": "h2",
        "ja4": "t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99",
        "ja3_hash": "06971656b55d8d6c33e327e2e51e8440",
        "peetprint_hash": "fc97c1cdfb1409c9a9326c1b726d1dee",
        "ciphers": 16,
        "extensions": 19,
        "akamai_h2": "1:65536;2:0;4:6291456;6:262144|15663105|0|m,a,s,p",
        "akamai_h2_hash": "52d84b11737d980aef856699f885ca86",
        "header_order": [
          "method",
          "authority",
          "scheme",
          "path",
          "sec-ch-ua",
          "sec-ch-ua-mobile",
          "sec-ch-ua-platform",
          "upgrade-insecure-requests",
          "user-agent",
          "accept",
          "sec-fetch-site",
          "sec-fetch-mode"
        ]
      },
      "page": {
        "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        "platform": "Linux x86_64",
        "vendor": "Google Inc.",
        "languages": [
          "en-US",
          "en"
        ],
        "hardware_concurrency": 64,
        "device_memory": 32,
        "max_touch_points": 0,
        "webdriver": false,
        "plugins": 5,
        "pdf_viewer": true,
        "ua_data": {
          "brands": [
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "154"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Google Chrome",
              "version": "154"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Not A(Brand",
              "version": "99"
            }
          ],
          "mobile": false,
          "platform": "Linux",
          "architecture": "x86",
          "bitness": "64",
          "formFactors": [
            "Desktop"
          ],
          "fullVersionList": [
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "154.0.8037.97"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Google Chrome",
              "version": "154.0.8037.97"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Not A(Brand",
              "version": "99.0.0.0"
            }
          ],
          "model": "",
          "platformVersion": "",
          "uaFullVersion": "154.0.8037.97",
          "wow64": false
        },
        "screen": "1280x720x1280x720x24",
        "window": {
          "outer": "1288x805",
          "inner": "1280x720",
          "dpr": 1
        },
        "timezone": "UTC",
        "locale": "en-US",
        "webgl": {
          "vendor": "Google Inc. (Google)",
          "renderer": "ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver)",
          "version": "WebGL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0 Chromium)"
        },
        "canvas_hash": "f5a94624",
        "webgpu": true,
        "chrome_object": true,
        "chrome_runtime": false,
        "notification_permission": "default",
        "notification_query": "prompt",
        "has_focus": true,
        "connection_api": true,
        "stack_read_by_debugger": false,
        "features": {
          "iterator_includes": true,
          "iterator_join": true,
          "iterator_zip": true,
          "fontface_width": true,
          "css_text_decoration_inset": false,
          "css_scroll_axis_lock": false,
          "websocket_options_bag": null,
          "camera_element": true,
          "topics_api": true,
          "protected_audience": true,
          "shared_storage": false,
          "attribution_reporting": false,
          "request_storage_access_for": false,
          "webhid": true,
          "private_aggregation": false,
          "css_margin_trim": false,
          "css_text_decoration_skip_spaces": false,
          "css_corner_shorthand": false,
          "css_symbols": false,
          "stream_append_html": false,
          "webtransport_reliability": false,
          "window_maximize": false,
          "media_display_state": true,
          "canvas_srgb_linear": false,
          "policy_media_playback_while_not_visible": false,
          "css_random": false,
          "css_scroll_snap_pair": false,
          "fenced_frames": true,
          "compression_dictionary": true
        }
      },
      "page_main_world": null,
      "sannysoft": {
        "checks": 57,
        "failed": 1,
        "failed_names": [
          "WebGL Renderer"
        ],
        "passed": 30
      },
      "plain_http": {
        "final_url": "http://ip-api.com/json/?fields=status",
        "status": 200,
        "title": "",
        "loaded": true,
        "warning_page": false,
        "page_text": "{\"status\":\"success\"}"
      },
      "playwright": {
        "evaluate_in_main_world": true,
        "console_events": true,
        "init_script": true,
        "route": true,
        "screenshot": true,
        "pdf": true,
        "mobile_emulation": true,
        "tracing": true
      },
      "browser_version": "154.0.8037.97"
    }
  ]
}

Bottom line

For scrapers, 156 is a quiet release: identical on the wire, identical fingerprint surface, and five new CSS-level ways for a page to confirm it really is 156. The practical items are the client-hint brand order change and the Local Network Access permissions — both invisible unless something inspects them.

For testers, the beta channel is already there: launch channel: "beta" next to stable, run the same script, and diff the output — which is exactly what this page did.