playwright/docs/src/test-snapshots.md

id	title
test-snapshots	Visual comparisons

Playwright Test includes the ability to produce and visually compare screenshots using expect(value).toMatchSnapshot(). On first execution, Playwright test will generate reference screenshots. Subsequent runs will compare against the reference.

// example.spec.js
const { test, expect } = require('@playwright/test');

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.screenshot()).toMatchSnapshot('optional-snapshot-name.png');
});

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.screenshot()).toMatchSnapshot('optional-snapshot-name.png');
});

Sometimes you need to update the reference screenshot, for example when the page has changed. Do this with the --update-snapshots flag.

npx playwright test --update-snapshots

Playwright Test uses the pixelmatch library. You can pass comparison threshold as an option.

// example.spec.js
const { test, expect } = require('@playwright/test');

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.screenshot()).toMatchSnapshot({ threshold: 0.2 });
});

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.screenshot()).toMatchSnapshot({ threshold: 0.2 });
});

Apart from screenshots, expect(value).toMatchSnapshot() can also be used to compare text, png and jpeg images, or arbitrary binary data. Playwright Test auto-detects the content type and uses the appropriate comparison algorithm.

Here we compare text content against the reference.

// example.spec.js
const { test, expect } = require('@playwright/test');

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.textContent('.hero__title')).toMatchSnapshot();
});

// example.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('example test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
  expect(await page.textContent('.hero__title')).toMatchSnapshot();
});

Snapshots are stored next to the test file, in a separate directory. For example, my.spec.js file will produce and store snapshots in the my.spec.js-snapshots directory. You should commit this directory to your version control (e.g. git), and review any changes to it.