Use await page.mouse.down() to press and await page.mouse.up() to release. The button stays held between those calls, so you can run other actions while it is down. For a simple click at coordinates, use await page.mouse.click(x, y) instead.
Press and release a mouse button
Each Puppeteer Page has a mouse object. Call its methods with await so the press and release happen in order:
await page.mouse.down();
// Run any intervening action while the left button is held.
await page.mouse.up();By default, both methods use the left mouse button. To use a different button, pass the same button option to both calls:
await page.mouse.down({ button: 'right' });
// The right button remains held here.
await page.mouse.up({ button: 'right' });Puppeteer documents left, right, middle, back, and forward as supported button values. See the Mouse API reference and Mouse.up() reference.
#1 Best Overall
Choose between mouse methods and a locator
| Need | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A complete click at a coordinate | page.mouse.click(x, y) |
It is a shortcut for moving to the coordinates, pressing, and releasing. |
| A held button with other actions between press and release | page.mouse.down() followed by page.mouse.up() |
The separate calls give you explicit control over the held interval. |
| Clicking a specific page element | page.locator(selector).click() |
The Puppeteer guide recommends locators for element interactions; they check viewport presence, visibility, enabled state, and a stable bounding box before clicking. |
Use the mouse API when the action is coordinate-based or needs explicit press-and-release timing. Use a locator when the target is an element and its built-in checks are useful. References: Mouse.click() and Puppeteer page interactions.
Understand coordinates and event behavior
Mouse coordinates are CSS pixels relative to the top-left corner of the main-frame viewport, not the full page. Scrolling changes which page content occupies a viewport coordinate.
Rank #2
Puppeteer generates synthetic MouseEvents; its mouse methods do not reproduce every behavior of a physical mouse. In particular, the API documentation notes that dragging and selecting text are not possible using page.mouse. Avoid assuming that separate down() and up() calls reproduce every operating-system-level mouse interaction.
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