diff --git a/src/common/Tracing.ts b/src/common/Tracing.ts
index cc0a13c2952..9a907999155 100644
--- a/src/common/Tracing.ts
+++ b/src/common/Tracing.ts
@@ -87,11 +87,19 @@ export class Tracing {
 
     if (screenshots) categories.push('disabled-by-default-devtools.screenshot');
 
+    const excludedCategories = categories
+      .filter((cat) => cat.startsWith('-'))
+      .map((cat) => cat.slice(1));
+    const includedCategories = categories.filter((cat) => !cat.startsWith('-'));
+
     this._path = path;
     this._recording = true;
     await this._client.send('Tracing.start', {
       transferMode: 'ReturnAsStream',
-      categories: categories.join(','),
+      traceConfig: {
+        excludedCategories,
+        includedCategories,
+      },
     });
   }
 
diff --git a/test/tracing.spec.ts b/test/tracing.spec.ts
index 5e06f12b4c9..80de87f3bfa 100644
--- a/test/tracing.spec.ts
+++ b/test/tracing.spec.ts
@@ -56,15 +56,38 @@ describeChromeOnly('Tracing', function () {
   it('should run with custom categories if provided', async () => {
     await page.tracing.start({
       path: outputFile,
-      categories: ['disabled-by-default-v8.cpu_profiler.hires'],
+      categories: ['-*', 'disabled-by-default-v8.cpu_profiler.hires'],
     });
     await page.tracing.stop();
 
     const traceJson = JSON.parse(
       fs.readFileSync(outputFile, { encoding: 'utf8' })
     );
-    expect(traceJson.metadata['trace-config']).toContain(
-      'disabled-by-default-v8.cpu_profiler.hires'
+    const traceConfig = JSON.parse(traceJson.metadata['trace-config']);
+    expect(traceConfig.included_categories).toEqual([
+      'disabled-by-default-v8.cpu_profiler.hires',
+    ]);
+    expect(traceConfig.excluded_categories).toEqual(['*']);
+    expect(traceJson.traceEvents).not.toContainEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        cat: 'toplevel',
+      })
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('should run with default categories', async () => {
+    await page.tracing.start({
+      path: outputFile,
+    });
+    await page.tracing.stop();
+
+    const traceJson = JSON.parse(
+      fs.readFileSync(outputFile, { encoding: 'utf8' })
+    );
+    expect(traceJson.traceEvents).toContainEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        cat: 'toplevel',
+      })
     );
   });
   it('should throw if tracing on two pages', async () => {