<commit_before>---
title: Launching Browsers
comments: false
---

When you run tests in Cypress, we launch a browser for you. This enables us to:

1. Create a clean, pristine testing environment.
2. Access the privileged browser API's for automation.

# Browsers

When Cypress is initially run from the Test Runner, you can choose to run Cypress in a select number of browsers including:

- {% url "Canary" https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html %}
- {% url "Chrome" https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html %}
- {% url "Chromium" https://www.chromium.org/Home %}
- {% url "Electron" https://electron.atom.io/ %}

Cypress automatically detects available browsers on your OS.

## Electron Browser

In addition to the browsers found on your system, you'll notice that Electron is an available browser. The Electron browser is a version of Chromium that comes with {% url "Electron" https://electron.atom.io/ %}.

The Electron browser has two unique advantages:

1. It can be run headlessly.
2. It comes baked into Cypress and does not need to be installed separately.

By default, when running {% url '`cypress run`' command-line#cypress-run %} from the CLI we will launch Electron headlessly.

***You can also launch Electron headed:***

```bash
cypress run --headed
```

Because Electron is the default browser - it is typically run in CI. If you are seeing failures in CI, to easily debug them you may want to run locally with the `--headed` option.

## Chrome Browsers

All Chrome* flavored browsers will be detected and are supported.

***You can launch Chrome browsers:***

```bash
cypress run --browser chrome
```

To use this command in CI, you need to install these other browsers - or use one of our {% url 'docker images' docker %}.

## Unsupported Browsers

Many browsers are not currently supported, but are on our roadmap. You can read an exhaustive explanation about our future cross browser testing strategy {% issue 310 'here' %}.<commit_msg>add keywords to return algolia search results<commit_after>---
title: Launching Browsers
comments: false
---

When you run tests in Cypress, we launch a browser for you. This enables us to:

1. Create a clean, pristine testing environment.
2. Access the privileged browser API's for automation.

# Browsers

When Cypress is initially run from the Test Runner, you can choose to run Cypress in a select number of browsers including:

- {% url "Canary" https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html %}
- {% url "Chrome" https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html %}
- {% url "Chromium" https://www.chromium.org/Home %}
- {% url "Electron" https://electron.atom.io/ %}

Cypress automatically detects available browsers on your OS.

## Electron Browser

In addition to the browsers found on your system, you'll notice that Electron is an available browser. The Electron browser is a version of Chromium that comes with {% url "Electron" https://electron.atom.io/ %}.

The Electron browser has two unique advantages:

1. It can be run headlessly.
2. It comes baked into Cypress and does not need to be installed separately.

By default, when running {% url '`cypress run`' command-line#cypress-run %} from the CLI we will launch Electron headlessly.

***You can also launch Electron headed:***

```bash
cypress run --headed
```

Because Electron is the default browser - it is typically run in CI. If you are seeing failures in CI, to easily debug them you may want to run locally with the `--headed` option.

## Chrome Browsers

All Chrome* flavored browsers will be detected and are supported.

***You can launch Chrome browsers:***

```bash
cypress run --browser chrome
```

To use this command in CI, you need to install these other browsers - or use one of our {% url 'docker images' docker %}.

## Unsupported Browsers

Many browsers such as Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer are not currently supported. Support for more browsers is on our roadmap. You can read an exhaustive explanation about our future cross browser testing strategy {% issue 310 'here' %}.
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