[Bug]: Unable to install playwright bundled browsers via terminal

[ruby-rae-olaya22]

Version

1.63.0

Steps to reproduce

1. Tried to install the playwright npm init playwright@latest
2. Do you want to use TypeScript or JavaScript? · TypeScript
3. Where to put your end-to-end tests? · src/steps
4. Add a GitHub Actions workflow? (Y/n) · true
5. Install Playwright browsers (can be done manually via 'npx playwright install')? (Y/n) · true
6. Wait for the installation run to finish

Expected behavior

Should install the bundled playwright browsers

Actual behavior

in the debug log file
0 verbose cli C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js 1 info using npm@12.0.2 2 info using node@v24.15.0 3 silly config load:file:C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\npmrc 4 silly config load:file:C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\.npmrc 5 silly config load:file:C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\.npmrc 6 silly config load:file:C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\etc\npmrc 7 verbose title npm init playwright@latest 8 verbose argv "init" "playwright@latest" 9 verbose logfile logs-max:10 dir:C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2026-09-05T15_01_55_717Z- 10 verbose logfile C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2026-09-05T15_01_55_717Z-debug-0.log 11 silly logfile start cleaning logs, removing 2 files 12 silly logfile done cleaning log files 13 silly packumentCache heap:2348810240 maxSize:587202560 maxEntrySize:293601280 14 http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/create-playwright 87ms (cache revalidated) 15 silly packumentCache heap:2348810240 maxSize:587202560 maxEntrySize:293601280 16 notice run playwright-boilerplate@1.0.0 npx 17 notice run create-playwright 18 verbose stack Error: command failed 18 verbose stack at promiseSpawn (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:22:22) 18 verbose stack at spawnWithShell (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:124:10) 18 verbose stack at promiseSpawn (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\promise-spawn\lib\index.js:12:12) 18 verbose stack at runScriptPkg (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\run-script\lib\run-script-pkg.js:70:13) 18 verbose stack at runScript (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\run-script\lib\run-script.js:8:12) 18 verbose stack at run (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\libnpmexec\lib\run-script.js:62:10) 18 verbose stack at async exec (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\libnpmexec\lib\index.js:329:10) 18 verbose stack at async Init.execCreate (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\commands\init.js:141:5) 18 verbose stack at async Init.exec (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\commands\init.js:46:14) 18 verbose stack at async Npm.exec (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\npm.js:194:9) 19 verbose pkgid playwright-boilerplate@1.0.0 20 error code 1 21 error path C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate 22 error command failed 23 error command C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c create-playwright 24 verbose cwd C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate 25 verbose os Windows_NT 10.0.26200 26 verbose node v24.15.0 27 verbose npm v12.0.2 28 verbose exit 1 29 verbose code 1 30 error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2026-09-05T15_01_55_717Z-debug-0.log

in the terminal
Writing src\steps\example.spec.ts. Writing package.json. Downloading browsers (npx playwright install)… npm notice run playwright-boilerplate@1.0.0 npx npm notice run playwright install Downloading Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243) from https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:8793:15) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:509:28) at TLSSocket.emitRequestTimeout (node:_http_client:948:9) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:521:24) at Socket._onTimeout (node:net:610:8) at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17) at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7) Downloading Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243) from https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:8793:15) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:509:28) at TLSSocket.emitRequestTimeout (node:_http_client:948:9) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:521:24) at Socket._onTimeout (node:net:610:8) at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17) at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7) Downloading Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243) from https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:8793:15) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:509:28) at TLSSocket.emitRequestTimeout (node:_http_client:948:9) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:521:24) at Socket._onTimeout (node:net:610:8) at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17) at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7) Downloading Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243) from https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:8793:15) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:509:28) at TLSSocket.emitRequestTimeout (node:_http_client:948:9) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:521:24) at Socket._onTimeout (node:net:610:8) at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17) at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7) Downloading Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243) from https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:8793:15) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:509:28) at TLSSocket.emitRequestTimeout (node:_http_client:948:9) at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:630:28) at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:521:24) at Socket._onTimeout (node:net:610:8) at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17) at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7) Failed to install browsers Error: Failed to download Chrome for Testing 153.0.8010.12 (playwright chromium v1243), caused by Error: Download failure, code=1 at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate\node_modules\playwright-core\lib\coreBundle.js:32428:32) at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:509:28) at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:295:12) Error: Command failed: npx playwright install at genericNodeError (node:internal/errors:985:15) at wrappedFn (node:internal/errors:539:14) at checkExecSyncError (node:child_process:925:11) at execSync (node:child_process:997:15) at executeCommands (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_npx\d352e76cc6b4974c\node_modules\create-playwright\lib\index.js:8272:39) at Generator.run (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_npx\d352e76cc6b4974c\node_modules\create-playwright\lib\index.js:8356:5) at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5) at async _Command.<anonymous> (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_npx\d352e76cc6b4974c\node_modules\create-playwright\lib\index.js:8661:3) at async _Command.parseAsync (C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_npx\d352e76cc6b4974c\node_modules\create-playwright\lib\index.js:2148:9) { status: 1, signal: null, output: [ null, null, null ], pid: 4580, stdout: null, stderr: null } npm error code 1 npm error path C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\Documents\Playwright Learn\Playwright Boilerplate npm error command failed npm error command C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c create-playwright npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2026-09-05T15_01_55_717Z-debug-0.log

Additional context

In VS Code Powershell Terminal

Environment

System:
    OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200
    CPU: (8) x64 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
    Memory: 1.52 GB / 11.78 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 24.15.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    npm: 12.0.2 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 1.136.0 - C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin\code.CMD
    Cursor: 3.9.16 - C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor\resources\app\bin\cursor.CMD
    opencode: 1.17.11 - C:\Users\ruby_thinkbitsolutio\AppData\Roaming\npm\opencode.CMD
  npmPackages:
    @playwright/test: ^1.63.0 => 1.63.0

[github-actions]

Hi, I'm the Playwright bot and I took a first look at this on Windows.

This is a network timeout reaching the browser CDN, not a Playwright bug. The telling line in your log is:

Error: Request to https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip timed out after 30000ms

Playwright wrote the project files fine; it only failed while downloading the Chrome build — each attempt gave up after 30s. I reproduced the setup on a Windows 11 runner and the download side is healthy from here:

• That exact zip URL responds 200 with Content-Length: 205123748 (~205 MB).
• npx playwright install chromium completed successfully (Chrome for Testing + headless shell + winldd all downloaded).

So the browsers and the CDN are fine — the connection between your machine and cdn.playwright.dev is timing out. This is almost always a proxy, firewall, VPN, or slow/unstable link on the client side. A ~205 MB download that can't sustain throughput will trip the 30s-per-request timeout.

Things to try

• Just re-run npx playwright install — transient network drops are the usual cause.
• If you're behind a corporate proxy, set HTTPS_PROXY (and HTTP_PROXY) so the downloader can route through it.
• If the CDN is blocked/throttled on your network, point at a mirror with PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST.
• Check for a VPN/antivirus/firewall inspecting or throttling the TLS connection to cdn.playwright.dev.

If none of that helps, a curl -v https://cdn.playwright.dev/builds/cft/153.0.8010.12/win64/chrome-win64.zip -o NUL from the same shell would show where the connection stalls.

What I ran

• OS: Windows (GitHub Actions windows-latest)
• version: tip-of-tree, @playwright/test@next → 1.64.0-alpha-2026-09-08
• HEAD on the reported zip URL → 200, Content-Length: 205123748
• npx playwright install chromium → exit 0, all artifacts downloaded from cdn.playwright.dev

_{Triaged on Windows by the Playwright bot - agent run}