Run multiple isolated Chrome browser profiles in the cloud — accessible from any device, always on, with automatic keep-alive.
Free compute & AI tools
- Stack free GPU hours across multiple Google Colab accounts — 8 accounts × 5h = 40h of free compute daily
- Run Hugging Face Spaces, Kaggle notebooks, or Lightning.ai sessions simultaneously across accounts
- Keep long-running AI training jobs alive without babysitting them from your local machine
- Use free-tier tools that limit one session per account — run one per profile
Accounts & identity
- Manage multiple Gmail, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Reddit, or TikTok accounts without logging in and out
- Run separate browser identities with isolated cookies, localStorage, and session tokens — no bleedthrough
- Handle client social media accounts from a single dashboard without mixing credentials
- Test referral flows, signup funnels, or onboarding sequences from fresh account states
Automation & scraping
- Keep browser-based scrapers running 24/7 without a local machine staying on
- Rotate through logged-in sessions for platforms that block headless browsers
- Monitor dashboards, prices, or feeds across multiple accounts in parallel
- Run multi-step manual flows that are too fragile to automate with scripts
Development & QA
- Test multi-user features — collaboration, permissions, messaging — with real simultaneous sessions
- Reproduce logged-in edge cases without polluting your local browser state
- Run cross-account regression tests without needing a local Selenium grid
- Keep staging environments open and authenticated for the whole team
Remote & mobile access
- Access a full desktop browser from your phone, tablet, or any device with just a browser
- Use web tools that don't work well on mobile by running them in a cloud desktop browser
- Share a browser session URL with a teammate for collaborative debugging
- Access geo-restricted tools by spinning up a Codespace in a specific region
Always-on sessions
- Keep web apps that log you out after inactivity permanently authenticated
- Run long form-filling, upload, or download tasks that would time out on your machine
- Leave a browser parked on a page that needs periodic interaction — keep-alive handles it automatically
- Use as a persistent remote desktop for any browser-based workflow
- Fork or clone this repo to your GitHub account
- Click Code → Codespaces → Create codespace on main
- Choose a 4-core machine for best results (free tier: 2-core works for 3–4 profiles)
- Pick a US East region for best Colab GPU availability
Runs automatically on first launch via devcontainer.json. To run manually:
bash setup.shbash start.sh- Go to the Ports tab in VS Code
- Port 7860 → click the globe icon
- Ports 6080–6089 are forwarded automatically when profiles launch
- Tap + to open the new profile sheet
- Enter a name, email, and optional notes
- Tap Create Profile
- Select the profile from the sidebar
- Click ▸ Launch
- Click ↗ Open Browser to open the VNC session in a new tab
- Log into whatever service you need — session is saved to disk
Prevents idle timeouts by simulating human activity (right-click + scroll) at a set interval.
- With a profile running, open the Keep-Alive card
- Set an interval (default: 10 seconds)
- Click ▸ Start
The activity log shows each event with timestamp and coordinates.
Click the ↓ button next to any profile in the sidebar to download its Chrome data as a .zip. This includes cookies, localStorage, session tokens, and login state — everything needed to restore the session elsewhere. Cache directories are excluded to keep the file small.
With a profile running, click ⊕ Paste Text to inject text directly into the browser as keystrokes — useful for entering credentials without typing manually.
CloudSurf is designed to work fully on mobile:
- Fullscreen mode — tap ⛶ in the top-right corner. On iOS/Android this removes all browser chrome for a native app feel
- Install as app — on iOS: Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen. On Android: Chrome menu → Install app
- Dark / Light mode — tap ◑ to toggle. Preference is saved across sessions
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ GitHub Codespace │
│ │
│ Flask Manager :7860 (CloudSurf UI + API) │
│ │
│ Per profile: │
│ Xvfb :{10+n} virtual display │
│ x11vnc :{5900+n} VNC server │
│ websockify :{6080+n} → NoVNC in browser │
│ Chrome --user-data-dir=profiles/{id} │
│ │
│ Keep-alive thread → xdotool │
│ Port auto-forward → GitHub REST API │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↑ access from any browser
| Machine | RAM | Profiles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-core | 8 GB | 3–4 | GitHub free tier |
| 4-core | 16 GB | 6–8 | Recommended |
| 8-core | 32 GB | 12–15 | Maximum throughput |
GitHub free tier: 120 core-hours / month = 60h on 2-core, 30h on 4-core.
| Port | Service |
|---|---|
| 7860 | CloudSurf UI + API |
| 6080–6089 | NoVNC — one per profile slot |
| 5900–5909 | Raw VNC — internal only, do not expose |
cloudsurf/
├── setup.sh # install dependencies
├── start.sh # start manager
├── stop.sh # stop everything
├── manager.py # Flask API + process manager
├── gdrive_sync.py # Google Drive profile backup/restore
├── index.html # single-file web UI
├── profiles/ # Chrome user data + metadata per profile
├── logs/ # manager logs
└── .devcontainer/
└── devcontainer.json # Codespaces config — auto-setup + port forwarding
- Profile data persists between Codespace sessions — logins survive restarts as long as you don't delete the Codespace
- Don't exceed RAM — Chrome uses ~1–1.5 GB per profile; going over causes silent crashes
- Keep-Alive interval — 10s is aggressive but reliable; raise to 30–60s for lighter activity signals
- Backup before stopping — use the ↓ download button per profile, or run
python3 gdrive_sync.py backupfor bulk export - VNC performance — x11vnc is tuned for low latency (
-wait 5); NoVNC runs at max quality with no compression