Selenium 4 Python Tutorial for Beginners

Selenium WebDriver is one of the most widely used tools for UI automation testing. Combined with Python’s clean syntax, it becomes a powerful and fast automation stack for web testing, scraping, RPA-style automation, and CI/CD workflows.

In this updated tutorial, you’ll learn:

• How to install Python 3.12
• How to install Selenium 4+
• Using WebDriver Manager (no manual driver downloads)
• Writing your first Selenium Python script
• Using modern locators
• Running tests on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and headless browsers
• Recommended IDEs
• A full working example + updated code

Introduction to Selenium Python Automation

Web UI automation means interacting with a browser automatically—opening webpages, filling forms, clicking buttons, scraping data, validating UI behaviour, and more. Selenium WebDriver allows automation of:

• Chrome
• Edge
• Firefox
• Safari
• Headless Chrome / Firefox
• Remote drivers (Selenium Grid, cloud services)

Python makes Selenium automation easier due to:

• Simple syntax
• Rich ecosystem (pytest, virtualenv, webdriver-manager)
• Fast learning curve
• Excellent community support

Installing Python (Updated)

Most Linux and macOS systems already include Python. Windows users should download Python from the official site:

👉 Download Python 3.12+ (Recommended) at: https://www.python.org/downloads/

During installation on Windows:
✔ Check “Add Python to PATH”.

After installation:

python --version

You should see:

Python 3.12.x

Install Selenium WebDriver for Python (Selenium 4)

✔ Install the latest and stable Selenium 4

pip install selenium

✔ Install WebDriver Manager (important)

This automatically downloads the correct browser driver.

pip install webdriver-manager

This means you NO LONGER download chromedriver.exe, geckodriver, or msedgedriver manually.

Choose Your Python Editor (IDE)

Recommended IDEs for Selenium + Python:

PyCharm (Best for most users)

• Free Community Edition available
• Intelligent code completion
• Debugging + virtualenv support

VS Code (Fast and lightweight)

• Python extension
• Debugging
• Integrated terminal

PyDev (Eclipse)

Older but still works for enterprise users.

Your First Selenium Python Script (Selenium 4 + Python 3.12)

This script automates:

• Opening Google
• Typing a search query
• Extracting the top 10 results

Full Updated Code (Chrome + WebDriver Manager)

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager  # Fixed: Added import
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

# Initialize Chrome with WebDriver Manager
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(ChromeDriverManager().install()))
driver.maximize_window()
driver.get("https://www.google.com")

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)  # Modern wait setup

# Accept cookies if popup appears (more robust XPath for 2025 Google)
try:
    accept_btn = wait.until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//button[contains(text(), 'Accept') or contains(text(), 'Agree')]")))
    accept_btn.click()
except:
    pass  # No popup? Proceed

# Search box (stable NAME locator)
search_field = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.NAME, "q")))
search_field.send_keys("Selenium WebDriver Python Tutorial 2025")
search_field.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

# Wait for results (no sleep!)
results = wait.until(EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h3")))

print(f"\nTop {min(10, len(results))} Results:\n")
if results:
    for i, r in enumerate(results[:10], 1):
        print(f"{i}: {r.text}")
else:
    print("No results found—try a different query!")

driver.quit()

Understand the Script

Our code runs multiple steps. It starts with the following:

Step 1 → Import libraries

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

Selenium 4 removed methods like find_element_by_id. You must use By.

Step 2 → Start Chrome using WebDriver Manager

driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(ChromeDriverManager().install()))

No need to download chromedriver manually.

Step 3 → Navigate to a website

driver.get("https://www.google.com")

Step 4 → Locate elements

Chrome’s selector for search box is:

search_field = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.NAME, "q")))

Step 5 → Extract results using CSS Selectors

results = wait.until(EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h3")))

Cross-Browser Testing With Selenium WebDriver

Selenium Webdriver supports cross-browser testing using Python. It means you can automate other browsers like Edge, Google Chrome, Safari, and headless browsers like Headless Chrome and Headless Firefox.

✔ Firefox (GeckoDriver)

from webdriver_manager.firefox import GeckoDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Firefox(service=Service(GeckoDriverManager().install()))

✔ Microsoft Edge

from webdriver_manager.microsoft import EdgeChromiumDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Edge(service=Service(EdgeChromiumDriverManager().install()))

Running Selenium in Headless Mode (Important for CI/CD)

from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager

options = Options()
options.add_argument("--headless=new")
options.add_argument("--window-size=1920,1080")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(
    service=Service(ChromeDriverManager().install()),
    options=options
)

Using Explicit Waits (Modern Best Practice)

Never use time.sleep() in real projects.

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
search_box = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.NAME, "q")))

A Better Real-World Example (With Explicit Waits)

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(ChromeDriverManager().install()))
driver.maximize_window()

driver.get("https://www.google.com")

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)

search = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.NAME, "q")))
search.send_keys("Python Selenium Automation 2025")
search.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

results = wait.until(EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h3")))

for r in results[:10]:
    print(r.text)

driver.quit()

Recommended Next Steps

To build a full Selenium Python automation framework, learn:

✔ Pytest + Selenium
✔ Page Object Model (POM)
✔ Screenshot capture
✔ Logging
✔ Allure Reports
✔ Parallel execution
✔ Docker + Selenium Grid
✔ CI/CD integration (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI)

Python Selenium FAQ

Do I still need chromedriver in 2025? No. Selenium Manager downloads and manages it automatically.

Is webdriver-manager still needed? Only if you’re on Selenium <4.21 or need specific driver versions.

Which is faster – Selenium or Playwright? Playwright is faster for new projects. Selenium wins for legacy browser support and huge ecosystem.

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Happy Testing!