How to use the Anti-Captcha plugin in Puppeteer or Selenium

Puppeteer and Selenium are two popular tools for browser automation, and our plugin integrates seamlessly into them. In this article, we'll show how to use it in Puppeteer and Selenium for NodeJS and Python programming languages respectively. If you have to choose one or the other, we strongly recommend NodeJS+Puppeteer for its native environment.

1. Install dependencies. For NodeJS, install the given npm packages below; for Python, install the packages and download "chromedriver" executable from this page. The driver version should match the Chrome version installed on your system.

Javascript

Python

npm install adm-zip puppeteer puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth

2. Download the ZIP version of the plugin for Chrome and unzip it to your project folder. Actual versions are located here. You can also do it programmatically:

Javascript

Python

//npm install adm-zip
const https = require('https')
const fs = require('fs');
const AdmZip = require("adm-zip");

const pluginURL = 'https://antcpt.com/anticaptcha-plugin.zip';

(async () => {
    // download the plugin
    await new Promise((resolve) => {
        https.get(pluginURL, resp => resp.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('./plugin.zip').on('close', resolve)));
    })
    // unzip it
    const zip = new AdmZip("./plugin.zip");
    await zip.extractAllTo("./plugin/", true);
})();

3. Next, configure your API key in the ./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js file. You can find your API key in the customer area. You'll need a positive balance to get it working.

Javascript

Python

const apiKey = 'API_KEY_32_BYTES';
if (fs.existsSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js')) {
    let confData = fs.readFileSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js', 'utf8');
    confData = confData.replace(/antiCapthaPredefinedApiKey = ''/g, `antiCapthaPredefinedApiKey = '${apiKey}'`);
    fs.writeFileSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js', confData, 'utf8');
} else {
    console.error('plugin configuration not found!')
}

4. Initialize the browser with the plugin. For Puppeteer we recommend the 'puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth' plugin for the 'puppeteer-extra' package, which hides all signs of the web-automated Chromium browser.

Javascript

Python

//npm install puppeteer puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');
puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

(async () => {
    const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
        headless: false,
        ignoreDefaultArgs: [
            "--disable-extensions",
            "--enable-automation"
        ],
        args: [
            '--disable-web-security',
            '--disable-features=IsolateOrigins,site-per-process',
            '--allow-running-insecure-content',
            '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled',
            '--no-sandbox',
            '--mute-audio',
            '--no-zygote',
            '--no-xshm',
            '--window-size=1920,1080',
            '--no-first-run',
            '--no-default-browser-check',
            '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
            '--disable-gpu',
            '--enable-webgl',
            '--ignore-certificate-errors',
            '--lang=en-US,en;q=0.9',
            '--password-store=basic',
            '--disable-gpu-sandbox',
            '--disable-software-rasterizer',
            '--disable-background-timer-throttling',
            '--disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows',
            '--disable-renderer-backgrounding',
            '--disable-infobars',
            '--disable-breakpad',
            '--disable-canvas-aa',
            '--disable-2d-canvas-clip-aa',
            '--disable-gl-drawing-for-tests',
            '--enable-low-end-device-mode',
            '--disable-extensions-except=./plugin',
            '--load-extension=./plugin'
        ]
    });
    const page = await browser.newPage();
})();

5. Navigate to a target page and fill a form if required. The plugin will pick up the reCaptcha automatically and start solving it.

Javascript

Python

(async () => {
    const url = 'https://anti-captcha.com/demo/?page=recaptcha_v2_textarea';
    const login = 'Test login';
    const password = 'Test password';

    try {
        await page.goto(url, {
            waitUntil: "networkidle0"
        });
    } catch (e) {
        console.error('err while loading the page: '+e);
    }
    // disable navigation timeout errors
    await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(0);

    await page.$eval('#login', (element, login) => {
        element.value = login;
    }, login);
    await page.$eval('#password', (element, password) => {
        element.value = password;
    }, password);

})();

6. Next is the slightly tricky part. Some web forms require users to press a submit button after solving the reCaptcha, others utilize callbacks and submit them automatically. In the first case, we want to press the submit button right after the reCaptcha is solved. To do this at the right time, simply wait for the selector .antigate_solver.solved to come up and then press the submit button.

Javascript

Python

// wait for "solved" selector to come up
await page.waitForSelector('.antigate_solver.solved').catch(error => console.log('failed to wait for the selector'));
console.log('{{ $t('articles.how-to-integrate.code-comments.recaptcha-solved') }}');

// press the submit button
await Promise.all([
    page.click('#submitButton'),
    page.waitForNavigation({ waitUntil: "networkidle0" })
]);
console.log('task completed, form with reCaptcha bypassed');

That's it; the form is filled, and the reCaptcha is solved and bypassed. Full code samples:

Javascript

Python

// first run the following to install required npm packages:
//
// npm install adm-zip follow-redirects puppeteer puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth
//
//
const https = require('follow-redirects').https;
const fs = require('fs');
const AdmZip = require("adm-zip");

const apiKey = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE!';
const pluginURL = 'https://antcpt.com/anticaptcha-plugin.zip';
const url = 'https://anti-captcha.com/demo/?page=recaptcha_v2_textarea';
const login = 'Test login';
const password = 'Test password';
let page = null;


const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');
puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

(async () => {
    // download the plugin
    await new Promise((resolve) => {
        https.get(pluginURL, resp => resp.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('./plugin.zip').on('close', resolve)));
    })
    // unzip it
    const zip = new AdmZip("./plugin.zip");
    await zip.extractAllTo("./plugin/", true);

    // set API key in configuration file
    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        if (fs.existsSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js')) {
            let confData = fs.readFileSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js', 'utf8');
            confData = confData.replace(/antiCapthaPredefinedApiKey = ''/g, `antiCapthaPredefinedApiKey = '${apiKey}'`);
            fs.writeFileSync('./plugin/js/config_ac_api_key.js', confData, 'utf8');
            resolve();
        } else {
            console.error('plugin configuration not found!')
            reject();
        }
    });

    // set browser launch options
    const options = {
        headless: false,
        ignoreDefaultArgs: [
            "--disable-extensions",
            "--enable-automation"
        ],
        args: [
            '--disable-web-security',
            '--disable-features=IsolateOrigins,site-per-process',
            '--allow-running-insecure-content',
            '--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled',
            '--no-sandbox',
            '--mute-audio',
            '--no-zygote',
            '--no-xshm',
            '--window-size=1920,1080',
            '--no-first-run',
            '--no-default-browser-check',
            '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
            '--disable-gpu',
            '--enable-webgl',
            '--ignore-certificate-errors',
            '--lang=en-US,en;q=0.9',
            '--password-store=basic',
            '--disable-gpu-sandbox',
            '--disable-software-rasterizer',
            '--disable-background-timer-throttling',
            '--disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows',
            '--disable-renderer-backgrounding',
            '--disable-infobars',
            '--disable-breakpad',
            '--disable-canvas-aa',
            '--disable-2d-canvas-clip-aa',
            '--disable-gl-drawing-for-tests',
            '--enable-low-end-device-mode',
            '--disable-extensions-except=./plugin',
            '--load-extension=./plugin'
        ]
    }

    try {
        // launch browser with the plugin
        const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
        page = await browser.newPage();
    } catch (e) {
        console.log('could not launch browser: '+e.toString())
        return;
    }

    // navigate to the target page
    try {
        await page.goto(url, {
            waitUntil: "networkidle0"
        });
    } catch (e) {
        console.error('err while loading the page: '+e);
    }

    // disable navigation timeout errors
    await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(0);

    // fill the form
    await page.$eval('#login', (element, login) => {
        element.value = login;
    }, login);
    await page.$eval('#password', (element, password) => {
        element.value = password;
    }, password);

    // wait for "solved" selector to come up
    await page.waitForSelector('.antigate_solver.solved').catch(error => console.log('failed to wait for the selector'));
    console.log('{{ $t('articles.how-to-integrate.code-comments.recaptcha-solved') }}');

    // press the submit button
    await Promise.all([
        page.click('#submitButton'),
        page.waitForNavigation({ waitUntil: "networkidle0" })
    ]);
    console.log('recaptcha solved');

})();

Bonus: there's a trick to running the plugin in headless mode, as Chrome does not support browser automation with plugins. Use the utility called Xvfb, which provides a virtual desktop for your application.

# install the package
apt-get install -y xvfb

# set display variable
export DISPLAY=:0

# start Xvfb daemon in the background (only once)
/usr/bin/Xvfb :0 -screen 0 1024x768x24 &

# wait a moment to let it come up (only once)
sleep 5

# add the prefix "xvfb-run" to "node" or "python" script
xvfb-run node myscript.js
# or
xvfb-run python myscript.py