Python/Selenium incognito/private mode

I can not seem to find any documentation on how to make Selenium open the browser in incognito mode.

Do I have to setup a custom profile in the browser or?

First of all, since selenium by default starts up a browser with a clean, brand-new profile, you are actually already browsing privately. Referring to:

• Python - Start firefox with Selenium in private mode
• How might I simulate a private browsing experience in Watir? (Selenium)

But you can strictly enforce/turn on incognito/private mode anyway.

For chrome pass --incognito command-line argument:

--incognito Causes the browser to launch directly in incognito mode.

from selenium import webdriver

chrome_options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_options.add_argument("--incognito")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chrome_options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

FYI, here is what it would open up:

For firefox, set browser.privatebrowsing.autostart to True:

from selenium import webdriver

firefox_profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
firefox_profile.set_preference("browser.privatebrowsing.autostart", True)

driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=firefox_profile)

FYI, this corresponds to the following checkbox in settings:

Note: chrome_options is now deprecated. We can use 'options' instead of chrome_options

from selenium import webdriver

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("--incognito")

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
driver.get('https://google.com')

I have initiated both Chrome and Firefox in incognito/Private mode using ChromeOptions and FirefoxOptions successfully using the code snippets in Java as below:

    //For Firefox
    FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
    options.addArguments("-private");
    DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
    caps.setCapability("moz:firefoxOptions",options);

    //For Chrome
    ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
    options.addArguments("-incognito");
    caps.setCapability(ChromeOptions.CAPABILITY, options);

    WebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL(URL), caps);

There is a really simple way to make a window open in incognito mode:

from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

chrome_options = Options()
# incognito window
chrome_options.add_argument("--incognito")

You can also use this library for maximizing the window and more, see the documentation: https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/rb/Selenium/WebDriver/Chrome/Options.html