diff --git a/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.test.ts b/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.test.ts
index 8b69f41cbdb29..78f03f1f91b72 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.test.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.test.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,16 @@ import {
   type CDPSession,
   type Page,
 } from "playwright-core";
-import { afterAll, afterEach, beforeAll, beforeEach, describe, expect, it } from "vite-plus/test";
+import {
+  afterAll,
+  afterEach,
+  beforeAll,
+  beforeEach,
+  describe,
+  expect,
+  it,
+  vi,
+} from "vite-plus/test";
 
 import * as ServerBrowserPage from "./ServerBrowserPage.ts";
 
@@ -269,6 +278,67 @@ describe("server browser element refs", () => {
     await ServerBrowserPage.click(page, { selector: 'button[data-example=" >> aria-ref=e1"]' });
     expect(await page.locator("button").textContent()).toBe("saved");
   });
+
+  it("evaluates top-level await and returns the last expression's value", async () => {
+    await page.setContent("<title>Ready</title>");
+    const result = await ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(
+      cdp,
+      { expression: "await Promise.resolve(); document.title" },
+      5_000,
+    );
+    expect(result).toBe("Ready");
+  });
+
+  it("still awaits the promise an async function returns", async () => {
+    const result = await ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(
+      cdp,
+      { expression: "(async () => { await 0; return 1 })()" },
+      5_000,
+    );
+    expect(result).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("does not rerun an expression whose SyntaxError is thrown at runtime", async () => {
+    const evaluation = ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(
+      cdp,
+      { expression: "window.runs = (window.runs ?? 0) + 1; new Function('await 0')" },
+      5_000,
+    );
+    await expect(evaluation).rejects.toThrow("await is only valid");
+    expect(await page.evaluate("window.runs")).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("does not rerun an expression whose awaited browser call rejects with a SyntaxError", async () => {
+    let posts = 0;
+    await page.route("http://preview.test/**", (route) => {
+      if (route.request().method() === "POST") posts++;
+      return route.fulfill({ contentType: "text/html", body: "<title>Ready</title>" });
+    });
+    await page.goto("http://preview.test/");
+    const evaluation = ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(
+      cdp,
+      {
+        expression:
+          "(async () => { const r = await fetch('/api', { method: 'POST' }); return r.json() })()",
+      },
+      5_000,
+    );
+    await expect(evaluation).rejects.toThrow("is not valid JSON");
+    expect(posts).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it("returns the result of a top-level await expression that reloads the page", async () => {
+    await page.route("http://preview.test/", (route) =>
+      route.fulfill({ contentType: "text/html", body: "<title>Ready</title>" }),
+    );
+    await page.goto("http://preview.test/");
+    const result = await ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(
+      cdp,
+      { expression: "await 0; location.reload(); ({ clicked: true })" },
+      5_000,
+    );
+    expect(result).toEqual({ clicked: true });
+  });
 });
 
 describe("server browser snapshot screenshot", () => {
@@ -417,6 +487,40 @@ describe("server browser drag", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("server browser evaluate", () => {
+  it("does not retry a parse error that arrives after the timeout", async () => {
+    vi.useFakeTimers();
+    try {
+      const classic = Promise.withResolvers<unknown>();
+      const send = vi.fn((method: string) =>
+        method === "Runtime.evaluate" ? classic.promise : Promise.resolve({}),
+      );
+      const cdp = { send } as unknown as CDPSession;
+      const evaluation = ServerBrowserPage.evaluate(cdp, { expression: "await 0; 1" }, 10);
+      const rejected = expect(evaluation).rejects.toMatchObject({
+        tag: "PreviewAutomationTimeoutError",
+      });
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(10);
+      await rejected;
+      classic.resolve({
+        result: { type: "object" },
+        exceptionDetails: {
+          text: "Uncaught",
+          scriptId: "4",
+          exception: { type: "object", className: "SyntaxError" },
+        },
+      });
+      await classic.promise;
+      expect(send.mock.calls.map(([method]) => method)).toEqual([
+        "Runtime.evaluate",
+        "Runtime.terminateExecution",
+      ]);
+    } finally {
+      vi.useRealTimers();
+    }
+  });
+});
+
 describe("server browser net errors", () => {
   it.each([
     ["net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED", "ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED", -102],
diff --git a/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.ts b/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.ts
index fdba996799180..31cff821c6e42 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/preview/ServerBrowserPage.ts
@@ -892,8 +892,10 @@ export const evaluate = async (
   timeoutMs: number,
 ) => {
   let timer: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | undefined;
+  let timedOut = false;
   const expired = new Promise<never>((_, reject) => {
     timer = setTimeout(() => {
+      timedOut = true;
       // Stops a busy script; an awaited promise is abandoned and settles unread.
       void cdp.send("Runtime.terminateExecution").catch(constVoid);
       reject(
@@ -904,10 +906,23 @@ export const evaluate = async (
       );
     }, timeoutMs);
   });
-  const evaluation = cdp.send("Runtime.evaluate", {
+  const params = {
     expression: input.expression,
     awaitPromise: input.awaitPromise ?? true,
     returnByValue: input.returnByValue ?? true,
+  };
+  // The devtools console's replMode allows top-level await but returns a trailing promise unawaited,
+  // so it only retries what the page's parser rejected. A parse error has a scriptId but no stack and
+  // ran nothing; a browser-internal rejection has neither.
+  const evaluation = cdp.send("Runtime.evaluate", params).then((classic) => {
+    const failure = classic.exceptionDetails;
+    const unparsed =
+      failure?.exception?.className === "SyntaxError" &&
+      failure.scriptId !== undefined &&
+      failure.stackTrace === undefined;
+    return unparsed && !timedOut && input.expression.includes("await")
+      ? cdp.send("Runtime.evaluate", { ...params, replMode: true })
+      : classic;
   });
   void evaluation.catch(constVoid);
   const result = await Promise.race([evaluation, expired]).finally(() => clearTimeout(timer));