browser-cookie3

What it is and what it does

browser-cookie3 is a Python library that reads cookies stored by your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave, Opera, and others) and exposes them as a standard Python cookiejar object. This allows you to use those cookies with HTTP libraries to make authenticated requests without needing to log in programmatically or manage credentials directly.

The package works by locating and parsing the browser's local cookie storage—typically SQLite databases or text files depending on the browser—and decrypting them where necessary. You can load all cookies from all browsers, filter by a specific browser, or filter by domain. It includes both a Python API and a command-line interface for extracting individual cookies.

Use it for:

• Web scraping sites where you're already logged in, reusing your browser session to avoid re-authentication.
• Automated testing of web applications using your real user session and cookies.
• Downloading content from authenticated services without hardcoding credentials in your scripts.
• Building tools that interact with web APIs on your behalf using your existing browser login state.
• Extracting specific cookies from your browser for use in curl, wget, or other tools via the CLI.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Extracts cookies from your browser's local storage and loads them into a Python cookiejar object for use with HTTP libraries.

Yes, if you need to reuse browser cookies for web scraping or automation. Install friction is low and there are no known vulnerabilities. The main caveat is dormant maintenance (last release 602 days ago), so compatibility with very new browser versions is uncertain; test against your target browsers first. The lgpl copyleft license is permissive for most use cases but requires derivative works to remain open-source.

Install

browser-cookie3 on PyPI

pip install browser-cookie3

uv add browser-cookie3

poetry add browser-cookie3

Installing browser-cookie3

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Maintenance is dormant (last release 602 days ago), though the repository remains active with 1066 stars and a recent commit on 2024-12-20. No security vulnerabilities reported.

License in practice

Licensed under lgpl (copyleft). You may use and modify the package freely, but any derivative work must also be distributed under copyleft terms.

Quickstart

pip install browser-cookie3

import browser_cookie3
cj = browser_cookie3.chrome()
cj = browser_cookie3.load()
cj = browser_cookie3.firefox(domain_name='example.com')

Requires browser cookie files to exist locally; supported browsers must have been used on the system and have stored cookies in their default locations.

Verify before relying

• Whether dbus-python and jeepney dependencies are required on all platforms or only Linux/macOS systems.
• Current compatibility with modern browser versions beyond the last tested dates in documentation.
• Whether shadowcopy dependency is actively maintained and what role it plays.
• How lz4 and pycryptodomex are used in cookie decryption and storage access.

Package facts

Evidence: browser_cookie3-0.20.1-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More WWW/HTTP packages