---
title: "Scheduled Tasks"
description: "Run the BrowserOS agent automatically on a schedule"
---

Scheduled Tasks let you run the BrowserOS agent automatically, whether it is daily, every few hours, or every few minutes. Write a prompt once, set a schedule, and let the agent handle it on autopilot.

Watch how to set up a scheduled task from scratch:

<video
  controls
  className="w-full aspect-video rounded-xl"
  src="https://pub-80f8a01e6e8b4239ae53a7652ef85877.r2.dev/resources/feature-videos/5-scheduled-tasks.mp4"
></video>

## Creating a Scheduled Task

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Scheduled Tasks">
    Go to **Scheduled Tasks** in the sidebar, or find it under **Settings**.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Click New Task">
    Click the **New Task** button to open the creation dialog.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Fill in the details">
    - **Name**: A friendly name for your task
    - **Prompt**: What you want the agent to do (any natural language instruction)
    - **Schedule type**: Daily at a specific time, every N hours, or every N minutes
    - **Enable**: Toggle on to start running immediately
  </Step>
  <Step title="Create and go">
    Click **Create**. The task will run at the next scheduled time automatically.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<img src="/images/features--scheduled-tasks-create.png" alt="Create scheduled task dialog" />

## Schedule Types

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Daily" icon="calendar-day">
    Runs once a day at a specific time you choose (e.g., every morning at 8:00 AM).
  </Card>
  <Card title="Hourly" icon="clock">
    Runs every N hours (e.g., every 2 hours, every 6 hours). Set an interval from 1 to 24 hours.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Minutes" icon="stopwatch">
    Runs every N minutes (e.g., every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes). Set an interval from 1 to 60 minutes.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Example Use Cases

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Morning briefing" icon="sun">
    > Every morning at 8am, check my Google Calendar and send me a summary of today's events. For each meeting, do a quick Google search on the attendees and include their LinkedIn summary.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="LinkedIn automation" icon="linkedin" iconType="brands">
    > Every day, go to LinkedIn and accept up to 25 pending connection requests.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Price monitoring" icon="tag">
    > Check the price of this Amazon item every hour. If it drops below $50, place the order.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Competitor tracking" icon="chart-line">
    > Every morning at 9am, visit these 5 competitor websites and check for new product announcements or pricing changes. Summarize what is new.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Social media digest" icon="newspaper">
    > Every evening at 6pm, check the top posts on Hacker News and r/programming. Create a brief summary of the most interesting discussions.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Cross-app workflow" icon="arrows-rotate">
    > Check my Google Calendar for tomorrow's meetings, then post a summary to my Slack channel, and create a Notion page with prep notes for each meeting.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

Your scheduled task prompts can be as complex as you want. If you have [connected apps](/features/connect-mcps) like Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, or Gmail, your scheduled tasks can work across all of them.

## Viewing Results

When a scheduled task runs, you can see the results in two places:

- **New Tab page**: Results show up right on your new tab
- **Scheduled Tasks page**: View the full run history for each task

<img src="/images/features--scheduled-tasks-results.png" alt="Scheduled task results" />

Each task keeps a history of its last 15 runs. Click on any run to see the full output, including what tools the agent used and what it found.

<img src="/images/features--scheduled-tasks-output.png" alt="Scheduled task output showing a daily news briefing" />

You can also:
- **Test** a task manually without waiting for the next scheduled run
- **Retry** a failed task
- **Cancel** a task that is currently running

## How It Works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Task triggers on schedule">
    BrowserOS uses your browser's built-in alarm system to trigger tasks at the right time. If your laptop was closed at the scheduled time, the task runs as soon as you open BrowserOS again.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Background window opens">
    A hidden browser window opens automatically. The task runs there so it never interrupts whatever you are working on. You will not see anything happen on screen.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Agent executes your prompt">
    The agent runs your prompt with full access to browser automation and any connected apps. It can navigate pages, fill forms, extract data, and interact with your services.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Results are saved">
    When the task finishes, the result is saved and appears on your New Tab page and in the task's run history. The hidden window closes automatically.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
BrowserOS needs to be open for scheduled tasks to run. Tasks have a 10-minute timeout. If a task takes longer than that, it will be marked as failed and you can retry it.
</Note>

## Cloud Sync

If you are signed in, your scheduled task configurations sync across devices. Create a task on your laptop and it appears on your desktop. Edits sync both ways, and conflicts are resolved automatically using timestamps.

Only the schedule setup syncs (name, prompt, schedule type, and timing). Task run results and output stay on the device where the task ran.

See [Sync to Cloud](/features/sync-to-cloud) for more details.

## Privacy

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Runs locally" icon="house-laptop">
    All tasks run on your machine in a hidden browser window. Nothing is sent to external servers.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Full control" icon="toggle-on">
    Enable, disable, edit, or delete any task at any time. You decide what runs and when.
  </Card>
</Columns>
