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Load testing with Selenium Python
Run a load test using Selenium Python scripts on BrowserStack Load Testing
Prerequisites
- BrowserStack Username and Access key. You can find this under your account profile.
- An existing automated test suite written in Selenium with Python and pytest.
Use our Selenium Python load testing sample project to quickly get started.
Run a test
Based on your preferred method of performing load tests, use one of the following methods:
You can start a new test either from the Quick Start page, or the Load Tests page on the Load testing dashboard.
On the dashboard, click Create Load Test.
Enter a Test Name for your load test, select Browser Only and click Upload scripts.
Upload scripts
In this step, upload your Selenium Python automation project as a ZIP file. Select your framework (for example, Selenium - Python) from the dropdown, then drag and drop your ZIP file (up to 250MB) or click to select it.
Before you zip and upload your Selenium Python automation project, replace local WebDriver instances (such as webdriver.Chrome()) with RemoteWebDriver or a remote WebDriver factory to run tests on the remote setup. Set the remote URL to http://localhost:4444/wd/hub.
Example
RemoteWebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL("http://localhost:4444/wd/hub"), caps);'
After you upload your ZIP file, the dashboard automatically validates your project. If validation is successful, you will see a confirmation message and a summary of the detected configuration and dependencies.
In the Specify run target field, enter the path to your Python file or module (for example, test_login.py). Then, select your requirements.txt file from the Select dependencies dropdown to specify which dependencies to install for your tests.
Ensure that your requirements.txt and any test runner configuration files are placed at the root level of your project.
Once you have verified the configuration, click Configure Load to move to the next step.
You can also run load tests using the Selenium Python sample scripts if you want to try out the feature before uploading your own files.
You can configure the following load parameters to customize your load test:
Install BrowserStack Python SDK
Execute the following commands to install BrowserStack Python SDK for plug-and-play integration of your test suite with BrowserStack.
python3 -m pip install browserstack-sdk
browserstack-sdk setup --username "YOUR_USERNAME" --key "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
python3 -m pip install browserstack-sdk
browserstack-sdk setup --username "YOUR_USERNAME" --key "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
Initialize your project for load testing
Run the following command from the root directory of your Selenium Python test project to generate the browserstack-load.yml file, which contains the configuration required to define and run your load test.
Refer to the given table to use the framework - language combination argument depending on your preference:
| Framework | Argument |
|---|---|
| Selenium - Python | --framework selenium --language python |
| Selenium - Pytest | --framework pytest --language python |
Configure your Load Test
Open the generated browserstack-load.yml file and update it with the relevant Selenium Python test details. Use it to define your virtual users, duration, load profile, and regions.
Specify the test type
testType defines the type of load test that you want to execute. Currently, Playwright, Selenium, WebdriverIO and Nightwatch are supported. Set this to Selenium for a load test using Selenium test suite.
Specify the language
Set the language to python.
Currently, only Selenium with Python, and Pytest is supported.
For a Python (vanilla) project, you need to specify only the language parameter.
For a Pytest project, you must also specify the framework parameter with value pytest.
If you omit the framework parameter, the platform treats the project as a Python (vanilla) project.
Specify the test framework
Set the framework to pytest, if that is your preferred framework.
Specify the paths to your Python configuration file
The files block specifies the key files required to install dependencies and define which tests should be executed.
- Under
dependencies, ist the paths to required files for installing dependencies. For Python projects, include the path to yourrequirements.txtfile. - Against
runTarget, specify the path to python files (.py) or module (directory) that you want to run. Note: This attribute is only relevant for Python (vanilla) projects. This doesn’t work for Pytest projects.
Ensure all referenced files are relative to the project root.
Set reporting structure
Use projectName to group related tests under the same project on the dashboard. Use testName to group multiple runs of the same test.
Both projectName and testName must remain consistent across different runs of the same test.
You can use the following characters in projectName and testName:
- Letters (A–Z, a–z)
- Digits (0–9)
- Periods (
.), colons (:), hyphens (-), square brackets ([]), forward slashes (/), at signs (@), ampersands (&), single quotes ('), and underscores (_)
All other characters are ignored.
You can configure the following load parameters to customize your load test:
- Load profiles
- Load zones
- Set thresholds
- Per-VU external inputs with test data
- Environment variables
- Configure multiple scenarios
- Capture response details
- Network throttling
Run the Load Test
Run the load test from the root of your Selenium Python project using the Load Testing CLI.
Before running a full-scale load test, do a sanity check with a small set of virtual users to validate your Selenium Python configuration and test stability.
View test results
When the test runs, you get a link to the result dashboard, where you can analyze key metrics such as:
- Response time
- Request throughput
- Web vitals (LCP, CLS, INP, and others)
- Errors and bottlenecks
If you run into issues, try the troubleshooting steps or contact us for help.
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We're sorry to hear that. Please share your feedback so we can do better
Contact our Support team for immediate help while we work on improving our docs.
We're continuously improving our docs. We'd love to know what you liked
Thank you for your valuable feedback!