Selenium Python: How can I disable JavaScript while using headless Chrome?

Question

Using these options together doesn't work as expected:

options.add_argument('--disable-javascript')
options.add_argument('--headless')

When I disable JavaScript without using headless mode, it looks like this.

But when I try to disable JavaScript with headless mode, it looks like this.

Answer 1

It's now possible to disable JavaScript in headless Chrome if you use the new headless mode:

The new way (2023): --headless=new (Chrome 109 and above)

The previous way: --headless=chrome (Chrome 96 - Chrome 108)

(The old way: --headless)

There's more info on that here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=706008#c36

For the updated Chrome 109 info, see: https://github.com/chromium/chromium/commit/e9c516118e2e1923757ecb13e6d9fff36775d1f4

You can use the code below as options for completely disabling JavaScript while running headlessly:

prefs = {}
prefs["webkit.webprefs.javascript_enabled"] = False
prefs["profile.content_settings.exceptions.javascript.*.setting"] = 2
prefs["profile.default_content_setting_values.javascript"] = 2
prefs["profile.managed_default_content_settings.javascript"] = 2

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_experimental_option("prefs", prefs)
options.add_argument('--disable-javascript')
options.add_argument('--headless=new')