diff --git a/browser.go b/browser.go
index 06742ad..ba78b6a 100644
--- a/browser.go
+++ b/browser.go
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@ import (
 
 type OpenPageOptions struct {
 	Referer string
+
+	// AllowNonOKStatus, when true, keeps the page open and returns a usable
+	// Document along with ErrInvalidStatusCode on non-2xx responses (other
+	// than 404, which is treated as ErrPageNotFound and still closes the
+	// page). This lets callers promote the page to an InteractiveBrowser
+	// to e.g. let a human solve a Cloudflare captcha that produced a 403,
+	// then resume extraction from the same browser instance.
+	AllowNonOKStatus bool
 }
 
 type Browser interface {
diff --git a/playwright.go b/playwright.go
index fbdb382..ed3c2f3 100644
--- a/playwright.go
+++ b/playwright.go
@@ -293,13 +293,19 @@ func (b playWrightBrowser) openPage(_ context.Context, target string, opts OpenP
 	slog.Info("opened document", "url", target, "status", resp.Status(), "request", resp.Request())
 
 	if resp.Status() < 200 || resp.Status() >= 300 {
-		_ = page.Close()
-
 		if resp.Status() == 404 {
+			_ = page.Close()
 			return nil, ErrPageNotFound
 		}
 		slog.Info("invalid status code", "status", resp.Status(), "request", resp.Request())
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: %d", ErrInvalidStatusCode, resp.Status())
+		statusErr := fmt.Errorf("%w: %d", ErrInvalidStatusCode, resp.Status())
+		if !opts.AllowNonOKStatus {
+			_ = page.Close()
+			return nil, statusErr
+		}
+		// Caller asked to keep the page on non-2xx (e.g. to interact with a
+		// Cloudflare captcha page that returned 403). Return both.
+		return page, statusErr
 	}
 
 	return page, nil
@@ -307,17 +313,25 @@ func (b playWrightBrowser) openPage(_ context.Context, target string, opts OpenP
 
 func (b playWrightBrowser) Open(ctx context.Context, url string, opts OpenPageOptions) (Document, error) {
 
-	page, err := b.openPage(ctx, url, opts)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	page, openErr := b.openPage(ctx, url, opts)
+	if page == nil {
+		return nil, openErr
 	}
 
-	err = b.updateCookies(ctx, page)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	if cookieErr := b.updateCookies(ctx, page); cookieErr != nil {
+		_ = page.Close()
+		return nil, cookieErr
 	}
 
-	return newDocument(b.pw, b.browser, page)
+	doc, docErr := newDocument(b.pw, b.browser, page)
+	if docErr != nil {
+		_ = page.Close()
+		return nil, docErr
+	}
+
+	// openErr may be ErrInvalidStatusCode when AllowNonOKStatus was set; the
+	// page is still usable, so propagate both the doc and the error.
+	return doc, openErr
 }
 
 func (b playWrightBrowser) Close() error {
diff --git a/sites/archive/archive.go b/sites/archive/archive.go
index 55b1c46..94e9fcc 100644
--- a/sites/archive/archive.go
+++ b/sites/archive/archive.go
@@ -57,15 +57,25 @@ func (c Config) IsArchived(ctx context.Context, b extractor.Browser, target stri
 
 	slog.Info("checking if url is archived", "url", uri.String(), "config", c, "endpoint", endpoint)
 
-	doc, err := b.Open(ctx, uri.String(), extractor.OpenPageOptions{})
+	doc, err := b.Open(ctx, uri.String(), extractor.OpenPageOptions{AllowNonOKStatus: true})
 
 	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, extractor.ErrPageNotFound) {
+			if doc != nil {
+				_ = doc.Close()
+			}
+			return nil, nil
+		}
+		// On ErrInvalidStatusCode (e.g. archive.ph 403 with Cloudflare
+		// captcha) the page is kept open by AllowNonOKStatus so the caller
+		// can promote it to an InteractiveBrowser and let a human solve
+		// the challenge. Return both the doc and the wrapped error.
+		if errors.Is(err, extractor.ErrInvalidStatusCode) && doc != nil {
+			return doc, fmt.Errorf("failed to open url: %w", err)
+		}
 		if doc != nil {
 			_ = doc.Close()
 		}
-		if errors.Is(err, extractor.ErrPageNotFound) {
-			return nil, nil
-		}
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to open url: %w", err)
 	}
 
@@ -95,9 +105,15 @@ func (c Config) Archive(ctx context.Context, b extractor.Browser, target string)
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid endpoint: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	doc, err := b.Open(ctx, c.Endpoint, extractor.OpenPageOptions{})
+	doc, err := b.Open(ctx, c.Endpoint, extractor.OpenPageOptions{AllowNonOKStatus: true})
 
 	if err != nil {
+		// On ErrInvalidStatusCode (e.g. archive.ph 403 with Cloudflare
+		// captcha) the page is kept open by AllowNonOKStatus so the caller
+		// can promote it. Return both the doc and the wrapped error.
+		if errors.Is(err, extractor.ErrInvalidStatusCode) && doc != nil {
+			return doc, fmt.Errorf("failed to open url: %w", err)
+		}
 		if doc != nil {
 			_ = doc.Close()
 		}