diff --git a/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toHaveURL.ts b/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toHaveURL.ts
index ffdb740971..df09833f84 100644
--- a/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toHaveURL.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright/src/matchers/toHaveURL.ts
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import type { Page } from 'playwright-core';
 import type { ExpectMatcherState } from '../../types/test';
 import { EXPECTED_COLOR, printReceived } from '../common/expectBundle';
 import { matcherHint, type MatcherResult } from './matcherHint';
-import { urlMatches } from 'playwright-core/lib/utils';
+import { constructURLBasedOnBaseURL, urlMatches } from 'playwright-core/lib/utils';
 import { colors } from 'playwright-core/lib/utilsBundle';
 import { printReceivedStringContainExpectedResult, printReceivedStringContainExpectedSubstring } from './expect';
 
@@ -51,13 +51,12 @@ export async function toHaveURL(
   }
 
   const timeout = options?.timeout ?? this.timeout;
+  const baseURL: string | undefined = (page.context() as any)._options.baseURL;
   let conditionSucceeded = false;
   let lastCheckedURLString: string | undefined = undefined;
   try {
     await page.mainFrame().waitForURL(
         url => {
-          const baseURL: string | undefined = (page.context() as any)._options
-              .baseURL;
           lastCheckedURLString = url.toString();
 
           if (options?.ignoreCase) {
@@ -96,7 +95,9 @@ export async function toHaveURL(
           this,
           matcherName,
           expression,
-          expected,
+          typeof expected === 'string'
+            ? constructURLBasedOnBaseURL(baseURL, expected)
+            : expected,
           lastCheckedURLString,
           this.isNot,
           true,
diff --git a/tests/playwright-test/expect.spec.ts b/tests/playwright-test/expect.spec.ts
index dfe6a6cf02..fdf9ee35c4 100644
--- a/tests/playwright-test/expect.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/playwright-test/expect.spec.ts
@@ -561,11 +561,12 @@ test('should support toHaveURL predicate', async ({ runInlineTest }) => {
     'playwright.config.js': `module.exports = { expect: { timeout: 1000 } }`,
     'a.test.ts': `
       import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
+      import { stripVTControlCharacters } from 'node:util';
 
       test('predicate', async ({ page }) => {
         await page.goto('data:text/html,<div>A</div>');
         const error = await expect(page).toHaveURL('data:text/html,<div>B</div>').catch(e => e);
-        expect(error.message).toContain('expect.toHaveURL with timeout 1000ms');
+        expect(stripVTControlCharacters(error.message)).toContain('Timed out 1000ms waiting for expect(page).toHaveURL(expected)');
         expect(error.message).toContain('data:text/html,<div>');
       });
       `,