REST API Timeouts

Browser Rendering uses several independent timers to manage how long different parts of a request can take. If any of these timers exceed their limit, the request returns a timeout error.

Each timer controls a specific part of the rendering lifecycle — from page load, to selector load, to action.

| Timer | Scope |Default |Max | | -------------------------------------- | --------------- || --------------- || --------------- | | goToOptions.timeout | How long to wait for the page to load. | 30 s | 60 s | | goToOptions.waitUntil | Waits for an event to fire. load (default) — waits for the full load event.domcontentloaded — waits for the DOMContentLoaded event.networkidle0 — waits until there are no more than 0 network connections for at least 500 ms.networkidle2 — waits until there are no more than 2 network connections for at least 500 ms. | Load is the default | — | | waitForSelector | Waits for a specific element to appear on the page. Can be any CSS selector. | null | 60 s | | waitForTimeout | After the page has loaded, waits an additional fixed time before proceeding. | null | 60 s | | actionTimeout | How long to wait for the action itself (screenshot, PDF, scrape, etc.) to complete after loading finishes. | null | 5 min | | PDFOptions.timeout | Same as actionTimeout, but only applies to the /pdf endpoint. | 30 s | 5 min |

Notes and recommendations

You can set multiple timers — as long as one is complete, the request will fire.

If you’re not getting the expected output: — Try increasing goToOptions.timeout (up to 60 s). — If waiting for a specific element, use waitForSelector. Otherwise, use goToOptions.waitUntil set to networkidle2 to ensure the page has finished loading dynamic content.