[Updates](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/updates) / product

# The live tab: a remote browser tab you share as a link

Open a real browser tab in another country and use it from any web browser — free on the site, longer from the dashboard or one API call, and a link you can hand to a person.

2026-11-12

Sometimes the quickest way through is a person: someone signs in by hand, answers their own one-time code or captcha, or just looks at what a page shows in another country. The live tab is that: one real browser tab on the fleet that you, or anyone you send the link to, can see and control from an ordinary web browser — then your code takes over the cookies.

## What it is

-   A real browser tab on cdpfleet, opened on the page and in the country you choose, shown in your web browser: mouse, touch and keyboard, an address bar, back, forward and reload. Typing works in any language, including input methods for Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
-   It opens in a new browser tab, in about 0.2–0.6 s, with the first frame 17–70 ms later and typing visible in ~12–64 ms (measured 2026-11-02).
-   Anyone with the link can view and control the tab until it closes, so share it only with the person who should use it.

## Three ways to open one

-   **Free, no account:** [/functions/livetab](https://cdpfleet.com/functions/livetab) — up to 3 minutes, closed after a minute without a viewer, one open tab per address.
-   **The dashboard:** Functions → Live tab, with your plan's limits.
-   **One API call:** `POST https://cdpfleet.com/v1/functions/livetab` with `{"url": …, "country": "de"}` returns `live_url`; `max_duration` (default 10 minutes, up to your plan's session limit) and `idle_timeout` (default 2 minutes without a viewer) set how long it stays. It holds one thread and is billed per second while open.

## Hand it to a person, then carry on in code

-   Send `live_url` to the person who should sign in. When the tab closes, `GET /v1/functions/livetab/{livetab_id}` returns the `final_url` and the tab's `cookies` for 10 minutes — your code loads them and continues as that signed-in user.
-   On paid plans the tab can run in a browser and device of your choice (`browser`, `launch`, `device`), the same ones your code uses.
-   Building your own viewer: `ws_url` streams JPEG frames and takes mouse, key, text and navigate messages — the dashboard's live-view protocol.

## Get started

-   Try it free: [open a live tab](https://cdpfleet.com/functions/livetab).
-   The API: [Live tab](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions/livetab) in the Functions docs.
-   Watching or taking over a session your code launched instead: [live view](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/live-view).

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