--- title: The Electron browser is being deprecated in Cypress description: Cypress is deprecating the bundled Electron browser starting with Cypress 16.0.0, with full removal planned in a future major version. The decision stems from... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-electron-browser-is-being-deprecated-in-cypress-t9hobog5t twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Electron browser is being deprecated in Cypress | daily.dev og:description: Cypress is deprecating the bundled Electron browser starting with Cypress 16.0.0, with full removal planned in a future major version. The decision stems from... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-electron-browser-is-being-deprecated-in-cypress-t9hobog5t og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/t9HoBOG5T.png og:image:alt: The Electron browser is being deprecated in Cypress og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Electron browser is being deprecated in Cypress **[cypress](https://daily.dev/sources/cypress)** · 8 min read · 4 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Cypress is deprecating the bundled Electron browser starting with Cypress 16.0.0, with full removal planned in a future major version. The decision stems from three core issues: Electron's Chromium version lags behind stable Chrome, Electron behaves differently from real browsers causing hard-to-debug test discrepancies, and security updates are delayed through the Electron release chain. Teams are advised to migrate to installed browsers like Chrome for Testing. The post provides a step-by-step migration guide covering how to install a supported browser, set a defaultBrowser in config, update CI pipelines, switch Docker images, and remove all Electron-specific code and environment variables. Chrome for Testing is recommended as the preferred test browser due to its pinned versioning, no auto-update behavior, and automation-friendly design. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is Cypress deprecating the Electron browser starting in version 16.0.0? Electron is deprecated as a test browser because its bundled Chromium version lags behind current Chrome by weeks or months, behaves differently from real Chrome in areas like file uploads and dialog handling, and delays security fixes since Electron must first incorporate Chromium patches before Cypress can ship them. Running tests against an installed browser instead makes results match what actual users experience. _Teams planning a cypress upgrade can track browser deprecation details like these on daily.dev._ ### How do I stop Cypress from defaulting to the Electron browser in my tests? Set a defaultBrowser option in the Cypress config, for example defaultBrowser: 'chrome', so Cypress no longer falls back to Electron when no browser flag is passed. Alternatively, pass --browser explicitly at run time, such as cypress run --browser chrome, and update CI jobs and Docker images (switching from cypress/base to cypress/browsers) to ensure an installed browser is always used. _Developers migrating cypress configs before a breaking change follow guidance like this on daily.dev._ ### What is Chrome for Testing and why would I use it instead of regular Chrome for automated tests? Chrome for Testing is a dedicated Chrome build that Google publishes specifically for automation, pinned to a specific version so it never auto-updates and won't change behavior between runs unexpectedly. It ships versioned, reproducible binaries for every major OS, avoids enterprise Chrome policy restrictions that can break remote debugging, and still supports loading extensions, which standard Chrome 137+ no longer allows via the Browser Launch API. _Anyone choosing a stable browser target for CI testing can follow comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@hackmajoris** · 0 upvotes > the only one which I found stable ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Cypress 16: faster tests, starting with HTTP/2 support](https://daily.dev/posts/cypress-16-faster-tests-starting-with-http-2-support-wnaxup61o) · cypress · 12 upvotes · 4 comments - [Electron 39.0.0](https://daily.dev/posts/electron-39-0-0-s3veysmek) · Electron · 46 upvotes · 2 comments - [Electron 40.0.0](https://daily.dev/posts/electron-40-0-0-vsvvb0ifk) · Electron · 79 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#electron](https://daily.dev/tags/electron), [#cypress](https://daily.dev/tags/cypress) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-electron-browser-is-being-deprecated-in-cypress-t9hobog5t) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Electron browser is being deprecated in Cypress","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-electron-browser-is-being-deprecated-in-cypress-t9hobog5t","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-electron-browser-is-being-deprecated-in-cypress-t9hobog5t"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T15:34:53.600Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:36:17.574Z","description":"Cypress is deprecating the bundled Electron browser starting with Cypress 16.0.0, with full removal planned in a future major version. 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