```yaml
product: AlterLab
title: "Stealth Mode — Web Scraping Glossary | AlterLab"
comparison_context: "AlterLab is an alternative to Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and Bright Data."
source_url: https://alterlab.io/glossary/stealth-mode
```

browser

# Stealth Mode

Browser automation patches that normalise headless browser signals to match genuine user browser profiles and navigate browser environment checks.

Stealth mode refers to a collection of browser environment patches and overrides applied to a headless browser automation framework to make it indistinguishable from a real user's browser. Without these compatibility patches, headless Chromium exposes numerous signals that bot detection systems use to identify automation: `navigator.webdriver = true`, absent Plugin arrays, empty `window.chrome` runtime, distinctive Canvas rendering, and anomalous timing signatures.

A complete browser environment implementation patches: the `webdriver` property to be undefined rather than `true`, the Chrome runtime object (`window.chrome`, `window.cdc_*`), the Plugins array with plausible plugin entries, language and platform properties to match the claimed user agent, Canvas and WebGL rendering to add controlled noise, and timing functions to eliminate automation-induced precision patterns.

Open-source libraries like `playwright-stealth` and `puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth` provide these patches as modular add-ons. AlterLab's Tier 3 applies a comprehensive browser compatibility patch set to Playwright, with fingerprint profiles that are regularly updated to match current Chrome stable release characteristics across the most common OS/GPU combinations.

### What is Stealth Mode?

Browser automation patches that normalise headless browser signals to match genuine user browser profiles and navigate browser environment checks.

### How does AlterLab handle Stealth Mode?

Open-source libraries like `playwright-stealth` and `puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth` provide these patches as modular add-ons. AlterLab's Tier 3 applies a comprehensive browser compatibility patch set to Playwright, with fingerprint profiles that are regularly updated to match current Chrome stable release characteristics across the most common OS/GPU combinations.

## Related Terms

[Browser FingerprintingA technique anti-bot systems use to identify bots by collecting dozens of browser attributes including Canvas, WebGL, and timing signatures.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/browser-fingerprinting)[Headless BrowserA web browser that runs without a graphical user interface, executing JavaScript and rendering pages exactly as a real browser would.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/headless-browser)[PlaywrightAn open-source browser automation library from Microsoft that controls Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a unified async API.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/playwright)[TLS FingerprintA signature derived from TLS handshake parameters a client sends when opening an HTTPS connection, used by anti-bot systems to classify traffic.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/tls-fingerprint)[Anti-Bot ProtectionSystems deployed by websites to detect and block automated traffic using TLS fingerprinting, CAPTCHA challenges, and behavioural analysis.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-bot-protection)

## Extract Stealth Mode data from any website

AlterLab returns clean, structured data from any public URL — no scraper infrastructure needed. Start free, no credit card required.

[View API docs](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/rest)

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