Selenium Click Command (Right click, Left Click, and Double Click)

Learn what the Selenium click command is and how to use it. Validate click interactions by running Selenium tests on real devices with BrowserStack to ensure accurate behavior in real-world conditions.

July 3, 2025 21 min read
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Selenium Click Command (Right click, Left Click, and Double Click)

The click command is one of Selenium’s core interactions. It allows you to simulate mouse clicks on elements such as links, buttons, and inputs. The click command helps build more realistic and reliable test scenarios that mimic actual user activity, making it a key feature for automating browser behavior.

In this article, you will learn how the click command works in Selenium and how to perform right clicks, left clicks, and double clicks.

What is the Selenium Click Command?

The click command in Selenium is used to simulate a mouse click on a web element. It is called on a WebElement object and triggers the same behavior as a user clicking a link, button, or input. This allows you to test and automate how elements respond to clicks on a page.

It works reliably across supported browsers and allows you to test how elements respond to clicks in different states or conditions.

Read More: Selenium WebElement Commands

Selenium Click Command – How to Use It?

The Selenium Click command is necessary to automate UI testing for your web app.  QA engineers use the Click command offered by Selenium WebDriver to interact with web elements. It helps simulate the click action users perform in the real world.

  • Selenium click() command is used to emulate the click operation on elements like buttons, links, etc.
  • Using the Selenium click command can save a lot of time spent on manual testing and identify bugs in the app.
  • However, multiple subsets of the click action exist – left-click, right-click, double-click, drag-drop, etc.

Note: QA engineers automate advanced click operations like double clicks, hovering, drag, and drop using the Action class. It is a built-in capability in Selenium that can also be used for automating keyboard inputs.

Also Read: How to Create and Use ActionChains in Selenium Python

How to Perform a Right Click in Selenium?

For automating the right-click operation, Selenium provides a dedicated method – contextClick(). This method accepts the target WebElement as the argument. To use this method, use the Actions class object. The method of locating the desired element remains the same.

Refer to the code below:

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;
public class RightClickDemo {

public static void main(String[] args) {

//Set system properties 
System.setProperty(" < Path of the Browser Driver > ");

// Create a new instance of the Firefox driver
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

// Visiting the URL
driver.get("<Enter the target URL>");

//Maximise browser window
driver.manage().window().maximize();

//Instantiating the Actions Class
Actions actions = new Actions(driver);

// Fetching or locating WebElement to perform right-click using the desired locators
WebElement btnElement = driver.findElement(By.id("id-value"));

//Right click the button to display Context Menu
actions.contextClick(btnElement).perform();

System.out.println("Context Menu displayed");


// Code To click on a specific option from the Context menu once right-click is performed.
WebElement elementOpen = driver.findElement(By.xpath("<Xpath of the specific option")); 
elementOpen.click();

// Accept the Alert
driver.switchTo().alert().accept();

System.out.println("Right click Alert Accepted Successfully ");

// Terminating the operation
driver.close();

}

}

The code above, when executed, navigates to the target website, locates the particular web element, performs the right-click operation, and selects the desired option from the context menu.

How to Perform a Left Click in Selenium?

A left-click is a fundamental operation. To perform a left mouse click, one must locate a particular element and perform the click operation using the click() command.

Consider a sample scenario: Visit BrowserStack.com and click on the Get Started free button.

Selenium Click Command Example

Code:

driver.get("https://www.browserstack.com/");
driver.findElement(By.id("signupModalButton")).click(); //using Selenium click button method

The code above does the following:

  1. Navigates to the BrowserStack website
  2. Locates the “Get Started Free” button using its “id” as the locator and performs a left click on it

Read More: Quick XPath Locators Cheat Sheet

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Performing a Double Click in Selenium

Sometimes, a user needs to double-click on a particular button and open a folder or file while performing browser testing. Like the right-click operation, the Actions class can simulate the double click. Refer to the Syntactic Code below that explains how to perform the double-click in Selenium:

driver.get("URL of target website / webpage"); // Define the URL of the target website.
Actions act = new Actions(driver);

//Double click on element
WebElement web2 = driver.findElement(By.xpath("XPath of the element")); 
act.doubleClick(web2).perform();

Read More: How to perform Double Click in Selenium?

Advanced Click Techniques: Context Menu and Keyboard Events

Once you understand how to perform a basic right‑click, you can combine it with other interactions for more complex test scenarios. This is useful when you want to test context menu behavior and keyboard navigation in automated test flows.

For example, you can right‑click an element, move to a menu item, and click it, or send a keyboard command like ARROW_DOWN and ENTER to select an option. These advanced interactions can be done using the Actions class.

Here’s an example of the code snippet (in Java) that you can use.

import org.openqa.selenium.*;

import org.openqa.selenium.interactions.Actions;

import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;




public class AdvancedRightClick {




    public static void main(String[] args) {

        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

        driver.get("https://example.com");




        // Locate the target element

        WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("menu-button"));

        Actions action = new Actions(driver);




        // Perform right‑click

        action.contextClick(element).perform();




        // Press ARROW_DOWN and ENTER to select an option

        action.sendKeys(Keys.ARROW_DOWN).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER).perform();




        // Continue with rest of test

        driver.quit();

    }

}

This code opens the page and finds the target element. It then right‑clicks on the element to open the context menu. After that, it uses the ARROW_DOWN and ENTER keys to select an option from the menu.

Read More: Mastering Keyboard Actions in Selenium

Why Use BrowserStack for Selenium Testing?

Selenium allows you to write automated browser tests. It works well on a local machine but has limits when you need to run the same test across many browsers, devices, and operating systems. This is where BrowserStack comes in.

BrowserStack provides a cloud‑based environment with access to a wide range of real browsers and devices. It allows you to run your Selenium scripts in parallel across platforms without configuring them or maintaining a device farm.

Here are some key features of BrowserStack for Selenium testing:

  • Selenium Grid on Cloud: Run your Selenium tests on a cloud‑hosted grid with access to a wide range of browsers and operating systems.
  • Parallel Testing: Execute multiple test cases at the same time to reduce overall test execution time.
  • Easy Integration: Connect BrowserStack with popular test frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and build tools for seamless automation.
  • Detailed Reporting and Analytics: Get screenshots, video recordings, and console logs for every test to speed up and improve debugging.
  • Local Environment Testing: Test internal or staging environments securely through BrowserStack’s tunneling feature.

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Conclusion

The click command in Selenium allows you to simulate mouse clicks on links, buttons, and other elements, making it easy to test how your site behaves when a user interacts with it. By combining it with advanced techniques like right‑clicking or sending keyboard events, you can cover more complex test scenarios and build robust end‑to‑end test flows.

As your test suite grows, running these interactions reliably across different browsers, devices, and platforms becomes challenging. This is where a service like BrowserStack fits in. It allows you to run your Selenium click tests on a cloud‑based environment with access to a range of real browsers and devices.

Try BrowserStack for Free

Useful Resources for Selenium

Methods, Classes, and Commands

Configuration

XPath

Locators and Selectors

Waits in Selenium

Frameworks in Selenium

Miscellaneous

Best Practices, Tips and Tricks

Design Patterns in Selenium: Page Object Model and Page Factory

Action Class

TestNG and Selenium

JUnit and Selenium

Use Cases

Types of Testing with Selenium

Tags
Automation Testing Selenium Selenium Webdriver

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