diff --git a/packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts b/packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts
index 24712ef21..03fe96109 100644
--- a/packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts
+++ b/packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import { extractSourcemapFromFile } from '@vitest/utils/source-map/node'
 import { createBirpc } from 'birpc'
 import { parse, stringify } from 'flatted'
 import { dirname, join, resolve } from 'pathe'
-import { createDebugger, isFileLoadingAllowed, isValidApiRequest } from 'vitest/node'
+import { BrowserConnectionError, createDebugger, isFileLoadingAllowed, isValidApiRequest } from 'vitest/node'
 import { WebSocketServer } from 'ws'
 
 const debug = createDebugger('vitest:browser:api')
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ export function setupBrowserRpc(globalServer: ParentBrowserProject, defaultMocke
         }
         // this will reject any hanging methods if there are any
         rpc.$close(
-          new Error(`[vitest] Browser connection was closed while running tests. Was the page closed unexpectedly?`),
+          new BrowserConnectionError(`[vitest] Browser connection was closed while running tests. Was the page closed unexpectedly?`),
         )
       })
     })
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/errors.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/errors.ts
index d4ffa49e2..c758b2295 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/errors.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/errors.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ export class GitNotFoundError extends Error {
   }
 }
 
+export class BrowserConnectionError extends Error {
+  code = 'VITEST_BROWSER_CONNECTION_CLOSED'
+}
+
 export class LocationFilterFileNotFoundError extends Error {
   code = 'VITEST_LOCATION_FILTER_FILE_NOT_FOUND'
 
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/pools/browser.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/pools/browser.ts
index 72fac8011..ef6f5cdda 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/pools/browser.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/pools/browser.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { createDefer } from '@vitest/utils/helpers'
 import { stringify } from 'flatted'
 import { createDebugger } from '../../utils/debugger'
 import { detectCodeBlock } from '../../utils/test-helpers'
+import { BrowserConnectionError } from '../errors'
 
 const debug = createDebugger('vitest:browser:pool')
 
@@ -435,8 +436,7 @@ class BrowserPool {
           // if user cancels the test run manually, ignore the error and exit gracefully
           if (
             this.project.vitest.isCancelling
-            && error instanceof Error
-            && error.message.startsWith('Browser connection was closed while running tests')
+            && error instanceof BrowserConnectionError
           ) {
             this.cancel()
             this._promise?.resolve()
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/public/node.ts b/packages/vitest/src/public/node.ts
index 1799d1c41..e6f9e43eb 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/public/node.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/public/node.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ export type {
 } from '../node/core'
 export { BaseCoverageProvider } from '../node/coverage'
 export { createVitest } from '../node/create'
-export { GitNotFoundError, FilesNotFoundError as TestsNotFoundError } from '../node/errors'
+export { BrowserConnectionError, GitNotFoundError, FilesNotFoundError as TestsNotFoundError } from '../node/errors'
 export { Logger } from '../node/logger'
 export { VitestPackageInstaller } from '../node/packageInstaller'
 export { resolveFsAllow } from '../node/plugins/utils'
diff --git a/test/browser/specs/bail-out.test.ts b/test/browser/specs/bail-out.test.ts
index 291dc6b4c..e6ac816cf 100644
--- a/test/browser/specs/bail-out.test.ts
+++ b/test/browser/specs/bail-out.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { expect, test } from 'vitest'
-import { runBrowserTests } from './utils'
+import { instances, provider, runBrowserTests, runInlineBrowserTests } from './utils'
 
 test('fails gracefully when browser crashes', async () => {
   const { stderr } = await runBrowserTests({
@@ -14,6 +14,42 @@ test('fails gracefully when browser crashes', async () => {
   )
 })
 
+// crashing the browser after `cancelCurrentRun` rejects the pending
+// `createTesters` call while `isCancelling` is set, so the run must
+// exit gracefully instead of reporting an unhandled error
+test.runIf(provider.name === 'playwright' && instances[0].browser !== 'webkit')(
+  'exits gracefully when the browser connection is closed while cancelling',
+  async () => {
+    const crashUrl = instances[0].browser === 'firefox' ? 'about:crashcontent' : 'chrome://crash'
+    const { ctx, stderr } = await runInlineBrowserTests(
+      {
+        'cancel.test.ts': `
+          import { commands } from 'vitest/browser'
+          import { test } from 'vitest'
+
+          test('cancels the run and crashes the browser', async () => {
+            await commands.cancelAndCrash()
+          })
+        `,
+      },
+      {
+        browser: {
+          instances: [instances[0]],
+          commands: {
+            async cancelAndCrash(context) {
+              context.project.vitest.cancelCurrentRun('keyboard-input')
+              await context.page.goto(crashUrl, { timeout: 1000 }).catch(() => {})
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      },
+    )
+
+    expect(ctx!.state.getUnhandledErrors()).toEqual([])
+    expect(stderr).not.toContain('Failed to run the test')
+  },
+)
+
 test('vitest bails out when the iframe is no longer accessible', async () => {
   const { stderr } = await runBrowserTests({
     root: './fixtures/broken-iframe',
diff --git a/test/unit/test/exports.test.ts b/test/unit/test/exports.test.ts
index 9fa6c6019..aad856da5 100644
--- a/test/unit/test/exports.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/test/exports.test.ts
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ it('exports snapshot', async ({ skip, task }) => {
         "AgentReporter": "function",
         "BaseCoverageProvider": "function",
         "BaseSequencer": "function",
+        "BrowserConnectionError": "function",
         "DefaultReporter": "function",
         "DotReporter": "function",
         "ForksPoolWorker": "function",