# Start here

From a new account to a first result in a few minutes — then what to look at next, and when a paid plan is worth it.

## 1\. Your account

1.  **Sign up** at [cdpfleet.com/app](https://cdpfleet.com/app#sign-up) with your email address or Google.
2.  **Activate the free Community plan** in the dashboard: you verify a card once with Stripe — it is never charged, and one card holds one Community account. You get 2 threads, 60 browser-minutes per thread a day and sessions of up to 15 minutes, on every browser, with a proxy included. (Or pick a paid plan straight away — see [when to upgrade](#upgrade).)

## 2\. A first result — pick your way in

### With your AI assistant

Add `https://cdpfleet.com/mcp` as a connector (MCP server) in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor or Claude Code and sign in when it asks — no API key, nothing to install. Then ask it to look something up on a website. Step by step for each app: [connect an AI assistant](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/mcp/setup); things to ask: [prompts to try](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/mcp/prompts).

### From code

Create an API key in the dashboard → **API keys** (it is shown once), set it as `CDPFLEET_API_KEY`, install the client named at the top and run. No proxy is needed: a session without one uses the plan's included proxy.

 

```node
// npm install playwright@1.60.0
// Browsers run on cdpfleet, so no `npx playwright install` is needed.
import { chromium } from 'playwright';

const KEY = process.env.CDPFLEET_API_KEY;

// 1. Launch the browser
const res = await fetch('https://starter.cdpfleet.com/chromium/session', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'x-api-key': KEY, 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    headless: 'new',
  }),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`launch failed: ${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);
const { wsUrl } = await res.json();

// 2. Connect and drive it
const browser = await chromium.connect(wsUrl, { headers: { 'x-api-key': KEY } });
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close(); // ends the session and stops billing
```

```python
# pip install playwright==1.60.0 requests
# Browsers run on cdpfleet, so no `playwright install` is needed.
import os
import requests
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

KEY = os.environ["CDPFLEET_API_KEY"]

# 1. Launch the browser
res = requests.post(
    "https://starter.cdpfleet.com/chromium/session",
    headers={"x-api-key": KEY},
    json={
        "headless": "new",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
res.raise_for_status()
ws_url = res.json()["wsUrl"]

# 2. Connect and drive it
with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.connect(ws_url, headers={"x-api-key": KEY})
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")
    print(page.title())
    browser.close()  # ends the session and stops billing
```

```java
// Maven: com.microsoft.playwright:playwright:1.60.0  and  com.google.code.gson:gson:2.11.0
// Run with PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD=1: browsers run on cdpfleet.
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;
import com.microsoft.playwright.*;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;
import java.util.Map;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    String key = System.getenv("CDPFLEET_API_KEY");

    // 1. Launch the browser
    String body = """
        {
          "headless": "new"
        }
        """;
    HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient().send(
        HttpRequest.newBuilder(URI.create("https://starter.cdpfleet.com/chromium/session"))
            .header("x-api-key", key)
            .header("content-type", "application/json")
            .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(body))
            .build(),
        HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
    if (res.statusCode() != 200) {
      throw new RuntimeException("launch failed: " + res.statusCode() + " " + res.body());
    }
    String wsUrl = JsonParser.parseString(res.body()).getAsJsonObject().get("wsUrl").getAsString();

    // 2. Connect and drive it
    try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
      Browser browser = playwright.chromium().connect(wsUrl,
          new BrowserType.ConnectOptions().setHeaders(Map.of("x-api-key", key)));
      Page page = browser.newPage();
      page.navigate("https://example.com");
      System.out.println(page.title());
      browser.close(); // ends the session and stops billing
    }
  }
}
```

```csharp
// dotnet add package Microsoft.Playwright --version 1.60.0
// Browsers run on cdpfleet, so no `playwright install` is needed.
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Json;
using Microsoft.Playwright;

var key = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CDPFLEET_API_KEY")!;

// 1. Launch the browser
using var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", key);
var body = """
    {
      "headless": "new"
    }
    """;
var res = await http.PostAsync("https://starter.cdpfleet.com/chromium/session",
    new StringContent(body, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json"));
if (!res.IsSuccessStatusCode)
    throw new Exception($"launch failed: {(int)res.StatusCode} {await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync()}");
var wsUrl = (await res.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>()).GetProperty("wsUrl").GetString()!;

// 2. Connect and drive it
using var playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
var browser = await playwright.Chromium.ConnectAsync(wsUrl, new BrowserTypeConnectOptions
{
    Headers = new Dictionary<string, string> { ["x-api-key"] = key },
});
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.GotoAsync("https://example.com");
Console.WriteLine(await page.TitleAsync());
await browser.CloseAsync(); // ends the session and stops billing
```

```go
// go get github.com/playwright-community/playwright-go@v0.6000.0
//
// One-time driver setup (needs Node.js 18+): playwright-go can no longer download the
// 1.60.0 driver itself, so build it from npm and point PLAYWRIGHT_DRIVER_PATH at it:
//   mkdir -p ~/.cache/pw-driver-1.60.0 && cd ~/.cache/pw-driver-1.60.0 &&
//     curl -sL https://registry.npmjs.org/playwright-core/-/playwright-core-1.60.0.tgz | tar xz &&
//     ln -sf "$(command -v node)" node
//   export PLAYWRIGHT_DRIVER_PATH=~/.cache/pw-driver-1.60.0
// Browsers run on cdpfleet, so no browsers are downloaded (SkipInstallBrowsers).
package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"strings"

	"github.com/playwright-community/playwright-go"
)

func main() {
	key := os.Getenv("CDPFLEET_API_KEY")

	// 1. Launch the browser
	body := `{
	  "headless": "new"
	}`
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://starter.cdpfleet.com/chromium/session", strings.NewReader(body))
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", key)
	req.Header.Set("content-type", "application/json")
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		msg, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
		log.Fatalf("launch failed: %s %s", res.Status, msg)
	}
	var session struct {
		WsURL string `json:"wsUrl"`
	}
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&session); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	// 2. Connect and drive it (Install fetches only the Playwright driver, once)
	opts := &playwright.RunOptions{SkipInstallBrowsers: true}
	if err := playwright.Install(opts); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	pw, err := playwright.Run(opts)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer pw.Stop()
	browser, err := pw.Chromium.Connect(session.WsURL, playwright.BrowserTypeConnectOptions{
		Headers: map[string]string{"x-api-key": key},
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	page, err := browser.NewPage()
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if _, err := page.Goto("https://example.com"); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	title, _ := page.Title()
	fmt.Println(title)
	browser.Close() // ends the session and stops billing
}
```

It prints `Example Domain`. More ways to start — the SDKs, your own proxy, what the launch returns — are in the [quickstart](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/quickstart); any browser and option as ready code in the [code builder](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/builder).

### With no code at all

The [free tools](https://cdpfleet.com/functions) take a screenshot, a PDF or the text of any page, or open a live browser tab in another country — no account needed. In the dashboard, [Launch interactive](https://cdpfleet.com/launch-interactive) opens a full browser you drive with your mouse.

## 3\. Find your way around the dashboard

-   **Overview** — your plan, live sessions to watch or take over, today's usage, and the code generator: pick a browser and options, copy runnable code, or Launch interactive.
-   **API keys** — create and revoke keys, and see the AI apps you connected.
-   **Sessions** — the last 30 days with their recordings, and your persistent profiles.
-   **Functions** — screenshots, PDFs, Markdown, scraping and jobs without writing code.
-   **Proxies** — save and test your own proxies, proxy rules, and the residential proxy balance ($5 free credit).
-   **Subscriptions** — change plan, threads and recording plan.

Every page in detail: [the dashboard](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/dashboard).

## 4\. When to upgrade

Community is for trying cdpfleet and small projects. A paid plan is worth it when you need any of these:

-   **More browsers at once or more minutes** — shared plans from $7.50 a month (5 threads), with 1, 2, 4, 8 hours a day per thread; dedicated threads at $8.50 each run around the clock.
-   **Longer sessions** — Community sessions end after 15 minutes.
-   **Features Community doesn't include** — recordings, persistent profiles, kept downloads, Function jobs and monitors, and keep-alive (dedicated).
-   **Priority** — Community capacity is shared by all Community users and goes first when the fleet is busy.

Compare the two side by side on [Community vs paid](https://cdpfleet.com/upgrade), or let the [price calculator](https://cdpfleet.com/#pricing) pick the plan for what you want to do.

---
Source: https://cdpfleet.com/docs/start · Markdown: https://cdpfleet.com/docs/start.md · All docs for AI tools: https://cdpfleet.com/llms.txt