What are Selenium relative locators and when should you use them?

RelativeLocator was added in Selenium 4. It builds a search from a known anchor element and a direction. The browser computes positions from rendered geometry, so the result depends on the current viewport and layout.

import static org.openqa.selenium.support.locators.RelativeLocator.with;

WebElement email = driver.findElement(By.id("email"));
WebElement password = driver.findElement(with(By.tagName("input")).below(email));

WebElement remember = driver.findElement(
    with(By.tagName("input")).toRightOf(By.cssSelector("label[for='remember']")));

WebElement help = driver.findElement(with(By.tagName("a")).near(email));

• above, below, toLeftOf and toRightOf express a direction
• near expands the search radius around the anchor
• Chained conditions such as below and toRightOf narrow the match
• The anchor element must be stable and visible for geometry to make sense
• Results can change with responsive layout, zoom and scrolling

Use relative locators as a pragmatic fallback for form fields or labels that lack test ids. Do not build core navigation on them. If a layout change moves the field, the locator breaks even though the feature still works.