Compare / browsers

Chrome vs Edge

Two real Chromium browsers on the fleet, measured side by side: identical engine, identical HTTP/2 and header order, and exactly three things a site can tell apart — the user-agent token, the client-hint brand and one TLS extension.

Google Chrome Microsoft Edge

Chrome and Edge on the fleet are the official Google and Microsoft builds for Linux, both on Chromium 154 at the time of measurement, both driven with the Playwright chromium client. Edge is Chromium with Microsoft's services and UI on top; for automation almost none of that UI exists. The interesting question is what is left that a server can see — and the answer is short enough to list.

As a developer: driving them

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
Build and versions	Official Google build. `channel`: stable (154), beta (156), dev (157); `version` pins previous majors (153, 152 today).	Official Microsoft build. `channel`: stable (154), beta (155), dev (156). No pinned previous majors.
Playwright client, options	`chromium` 1.60. The common options plus `channel` and `version`.	`chromium` 1.60. The common options plus `channel`.
Rendering, codecs, PDF, device emulation	Chromium 154 with proprietary codecs (H.264, AAC) and Widevine, unlike Playwright's open-source Chromium. PDF in headless; mobile emulation works.	The same Chromium 154 and the same proprietary codecs; PDF and emulation the same (measured: every Playwright feature probe identical).
What Edge adds for a user	—	Collections, vertical tabs, the sidebar, Copilot, Microsoft account sync — browser UI that is not part of a page and not reachable through Playwright. For a script, Edge is Chrome with a different name.
Threads, speed	2 headful, 1 headless. Timings in the table are proxy noise.	Same.

As a scraper: what the site sees

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
User agent	`… Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36`	`… Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/154.0.0.0` — the only difference in the string.
Client hints (`sec-ch-ua`, `navigator.userAgentData`)	Brands `Chromium 154`, `Google Chrome 154`, plus the GREASE token.	Brands `Chromium 154`, `Microsoft Edge 154`, plus the GREASE token; `fullVersionList` carries Edge's own build (154.0.4258.62) next to Chromium's.
TLS	JA4 `t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_…` — 19 extensions.	JA4 `t13d1516h2_8daaf6152771_…` — 18 extensions: Edge's ClientHello omits one extension Chrome sends. Same cipher suites (the middle hash matches), different full JA4 and peetprint.
HTTP/2 and headers	Akamai fingerprint `1:65536;2:0;4:6291456;6:262144\|15663105\|0\|m,a,s,p`; header order `:method :authority :scheme :path sec-ch-ua …`.	Identical — same SETTINGS, same WINDOW_UPDATE, same pseudo-header and header order (measured).
JavaScript surface	Chromium 154: same plugins (5), same WebGL (SwiftShader on the fleet), same canvas hash, same feature set, `webdriver` false.	Identical on every probe except the UA-derived values (measured).
Who runs it	About two thirds of desktop users; on Linux, the dominant browser.	A few percent of desktop users, mostly on Windows; Edge on Linux (`X11; Linux x86_64 … Edg/`) is a small cohort — a consistent one, since it is a real build, but small.
bot.sannysoft.com	1 of 57 red: "WebGL Renderer" (the SwiftShader string).	The same single red.

Which to pick

Chrome by default: the largest cohort, the most versions and channels (including pinned majors for reproducing a site's behaviour on an older release), and the browser most sites are tested against.
Edge when the target treats Edge differently — Microsoft properties and sites that gate features on the Edg/ token or the Microsoft Edge brand — or when you want a second genuine Chromium identity (different UA, brand and JA4) without leaving real browsers. Keep the platform plausible: an Edge user agent on Linux is rare; use it where it fits.
Not for diversity at scale: alternating Chrome and Edge changes three fields and nothing else — same HTTP/2, same canvas, same GPU string. For identities that differ at the device level, see Camoufox.

Measured on the fleet (2026-10-06)

One headful launch of each through the same proxy; both official Linux builds on Chromium 154. The TLS difference is stable per build; the timing difference is one slow proxy exit during Chrome's run.

Launch and cost

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

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
Launch body	{"headless":false}	{"headless":false}
Threads used	2 (linux_headful)	2 (linux_headful)
Browser version	154.0.8037.97	154.0.4258.62
Launch request → browser ready	0.7 s	0.6 s
Playwright connect	0.3 s	0.1 s
Load example.com	5.5 s	0.4 s
Load tls.peet.ws/api/all	1.4 s	1.6 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.

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
HTTP version	h2	h2
JA4	t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99	t13d1516h2_8daaf6152771_806a8c22fdea
Peetprint hash	fc97c1cdfb1409c9a9326c1b726d1dee	8f568b2a409b82d0ec24cb84bf3bc3fc
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 / 18
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.

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
navigator.userAgent	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/154.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/154.0.0.0
UA-CH brands	Chromium 154 · Google Chrome 154 · Not A(Brand 99	Chromium 154 · Microsoft Edge 154 · Not A(Brand 99
UA-CH full version list	Chromium 154.0.8037.97 · Google Chrome 154.0.8037.97 · Not A(Brand 99.0.0.0	Chromium 154.0.8037.98 · Microsoft Edge 154.0.4258.62 · 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	24 / 32	12 / 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.

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
`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)	no	no
CSS `text-decoration-skip-spaces` (Chrome 155)	no	no
CSS `corner` shorthand (Chrome 155)	no	no
CSS `symbols()` (Chrome 155)	no	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)	no	no
CSS `random()` (Chrome 156)	no	no
CSS `scroll-snap-type: pair` (Chrome 156)	no	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.

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
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?

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
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.

	Google Chrome	Microsoft Edge
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": "2026-10-06T20:09:31.775Z",
  "sides": [
    {
      "label": "Google Chrome",
      "engine": "chrome",
      "body": {
        "headless": false
      },
      "launch": {
        "browser": "chrome",
        "resource_class": "linux_headful",
        "weight": 2,
        "launch_ms": 728,
        "connect_ms": 270,
        "example_ms": 5463,
        "peet_ms": 1363
      },
      "network": {
        "http_version": "h2",
        "ja4": "t13d1517h2_8daaf6152771_cb7bf5808d99",
        "ja3_hash": "534a3aac02ce995cde620f05ac154405",
        "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": 24,
        "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,
          "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"
    },
    {
      "label": "Microsoft Edge",
      "engine": "edge",
      "body": {
        "headless": false
      },
      "launch": {
        "browser": "edge",
        "resource_class": "linux_headful",
        "weight": 2,
        "launch_ms": 613,
        "connect_ms": 63,
        "example_ms": 411,
        "peet_ms": 1644
      },
      "network": {
        "http_version": "h2",
        "ja4": "t13d1516h2_8daaf6152771_806a8c22fdea",
        "ja3_hash": "7b846403a2362a1618a29e1eea96ba9b",
        "peetprint_hash": "8f568b2a409b82d0ec24cb84bf3bc3fc",
        "ciphers": 16,
        "extensions": 18,
        "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 Edg/154.0.0.0",
        "platform": "Linux x86_64",
        "vendor": "Google Inc.",
        "languages": [
          "en-US",
          "en"
        ],
        "hardware_concurrency": 12,
        "device_memory": 32,
        "max_touch_points": 0,
        "webdriver": false,
        "plugins": 5,
        "pdf_viewer": true,
        "ua_data": {
          "brands": [
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "154"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Microsoft Edge",
              "version": "154"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Not A(Brand",
              "version": "99"
            }
          ],
          "mobile": false,
          "platform": "Linux",
          "architecture": "x86",
          "bitness": "64",
          "formFactors": [
            "Desktop"
          ],
          "fullVersionList": [
            {
              "brand": "Chromium",
              "version": "154.0.8037.98"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Microsoft Edge",
              "version": "154.0.4258.62"
            },
            {
              "brand": "Not A(Brand",
              "version": "99.0.0.0"
            }
          ],
          "model": "",
          "platformVersion": "",
          "uaFullVersion": "154.0.4258.62",
          "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,
          "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": "154.0.4258.62"
    }
  ]
}

Bottom line

For a page, Chrome and Edge are the same machine wearing two badges: Edg/ in the user agent, Microsoft Edge in the client hints, and one TLS extension. Everything an anti-bot system reads beyond that — HTTP/2, header order, canvas, WebGL, feature set — is byte-for-byte Chromium 154.

That makes Edge a safe, cheap second identity when a site cares which badge it sees, and a pointless one when it doesn't.