diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/response.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/response.ts
index 54eb8c0cf6548..fcb2021e94cda 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/response.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/response.ts
@@ -302,6 +302,9 @@ export function renderTabMarkdown(tab: TabHeader): string[] {
     lines.push(`- Page Title: ${tab.title}`);
   if (tab.crashed)
     lines.push(`- Page status: crashed`);
+  const status = tab.mainDocumentStatus;
+  if (status && (status.status < 200 || status.status >= 300))
+    lines.push(`- HTTP status: ${status.status}${status.statusText ? ' ' + status.statusText : ''}`);
   if (tab.console.errors || tab.console.warnings)
     lines.push(`- Console: ${tab.console.errors} errors, ${tab.console.warnings} warnings`);
   return lines;
diff --git a/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/tab.ts b/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/tab.ts
index 65e85c1ae1004..a2ac803ca4862 100644
--- a/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/tab.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright-core/src/tools/backend/tab.ts
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ export type TabHeader = {
   url: string;
   current: boolean;
   crashed: boolean;
+  mainDocumentStatus?: { status: number, statusText: string };
   console: { total: number, warnings: number, errors: number };
 };
 
@@ -93,6 +94,7 @@ export class Tab extends EventEmitter<TabEventsInterface> {
   private _lastHeader: TabHeader = { title: 'about:blank', url: 'about:blank', current: false, crashed: false, console: { total: 0, warnings: 0, errors: 0 } };
   private _downloads: Download[] = [];
   private _requests: playwright.Request[] = [];
+  private _mainDocumentStatus: { status: number, statusText: string } | undefined;
   private _onPageClose: (tab: Tab) => void;
   crashed = false;
   private _modalStates: ModalState[] = [];
@@ -219,6 +221,7 @@ export class Tab extends EventEmitter<TabEventsInterface> {
   private _clearCollectedArtifacts() {
     this._downloads.length = 0;
     this._requests.length = 0;
+    this._mainDocumentStatus = undefined;
     this._recentEventEntries.length = 0;
     this._resetLogs();
   }
@@ -238,9 +241,12 @@ export class Tab extends EventEmitter<TabEventsInterface> {
   }
 
   private _handleResponse(response: playwright.Response) {
-    const timing = response.request().timing();
+    const request = response.request();
+    if (request.isNavigationRequest() && response.frame() === this.page.mainFrame() && !request.redirectedTo())
+      this._mainDocumentStatus = { status: response.status(), statusText: response.statusText() };
+    const timing = request.timing();
     const wallTime = timing.responseStart + timing.startTime;
-    this._addLogEntry({ type: 'request', wallTime, request: response.request() });
+    this._addLogEntry({ type: 'request', wallTime, request });
   }
 
   private _handleRequestFailed(request: playwright.Request) {
@@ -284,6 +290,7 @@ export class Tab extends EventEmitter<TabEventsInterface> {
       url: this.page.url(),
       current: this.isCurrentTab(),
       crashed: this.crashed,
+      mainDocumentStatus: this._mainDocumentStatus,
       console: consoleCounts,
     };
 
@@ -583,6 +590,8 @@ function tabHeaderEquals(a: TabHeader, b: TabHeader): boolean {
       a.url === b.url &&
       a.current === b.current &&
       a.crashed === b.crashed &&
+      a.mainDocumentStatus?.status === b.mainDocumentStatus?.status &&
+      a.mainDocumentStatus?.statusText === b.mainDocumentStatus?.statusText &&
       a.console.errors === b.console.errors &&
       a.console.warnings === b.console.warnings &&
       a.console.total === b.console.total;
diff --git a/tests/mcp/core.spec.ts b/tests/mcp/core.spec.ts
index 06423357b550d..61fd4627c28b2 100644
--- a/tests/mcp/core.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/mcp/core.spec.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,33 @@ test('browser_navigate', async ({ client, server }) => {
   });
 });
 
+test('browser_navigate surfaces non-2xx HTTP status', async ({ client, server }) => {
+  server.setRoute('/locked', (req, res) => {
+    res.writeHead(402, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
+    res.end('<title>Payment Required</title><body>Pay up</body>');
+  });
+
+  expect(await client.callTool({
+    name: 'browser_navigate',
+    arguments: { url: server.PREFIX + '/locked' },
+  })).toHaveResponse({
+    page: expect.stringContaining(`- HTTP status: 402 Payment Required`),
+  });
+
+  // A redirect to a 2xx page must not carry a status line: the intermediate
+  // 302 hop must not leak, and the final 2xx landing renders nothing.
+  server.setRoute('/redirect', (req, res) => {
+    res.writeHead(302, { location: server.HELLO_WORLD });
+    res.end();
+  });
+  expect(await client.callTool({
+    name: 'browser_navigate',
+    arguments: { url: server.PREFIX + '/redirect' },
+  })).not.toHaveResponse({
+    page: expect.stringContaining('HTTP status'),
+  });
+});
+
 test('browser_navigate blocks file:// URLs by default', async ({ client }) => {
   expect(await client.callTool({
     name: 'browser_navigate',