diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index aff5444e..f8d77d56 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -295,10 +295,10 @@ from stagehand import AsyncStagehand
 
 
 async def main() -> None:
-    client = AsyncStagehand()
-    session = await client.sessions.start(model_name="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6")
-    response = await session.act(input="click the first link on the page")
-    print(response.data)
+    async with AsyncStagehand() as client:
+        session = await client.sessions.start(model_name="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6")
+        response = await session.act(input="click the first link on the page")
+        print(response.data)
 
 
 asyncio.run(main())
@@ -677,7 +677,9 @@ client.with_options(http_client=DefaultHttpxClient(...))
 
 ### Managing HTTP resources
 
-By default the library closes underlying HTTP connections whenever the client is [garbage collected](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__del__). You can manually close the client using the `.close()` method if desired, or with a context manager that closes when exiting.
+The synchronous client makes a best effort to close underlying HTTP connections when it is [garbage collected](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__del__). You can close it deterministically with `.close()` or a context manager.
+
+Async clients cannot reliably close connections during garbage collection when no event loop is running. Always use `async with AsyncStagehand(...)` or call `await client.close()`.
 
 ```py
 from stagehand import Stagehand
diff --git a/src/stagehand/_base_client.py b/src/stagehand/_base_client.py
index 9af0033b..77d23432 100644
--- a/src/stagehand/_base_client.py
+++ b/src/stagehand/_base_client.py
@@ -1419,7 +1419,23 @@ def __del__(self) -> None:
 
         try:
             # TODO(someday): support non asyncio runtimes here
-            asyncio.get_running_loop().create_task(self.aclose())
+            loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
+        except RuntimeError:
+            try:
+                warnings.warn(
+                    "Unclosed async HTTP client; use `async with AsyncStagehand(...)` or `await client.close()`",
+                    ResourceWarning,
+                    stacklevel=2,
+                    source=self,
+                )
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+            return
+        except Exception:
+            return
+
+        try:
+            loop.create_task(self.aclose())
         except Exception:
             pass
 
diff --git a/tests/test_async_client_cleanup.py b/tests/test_async_client_cleanup.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7d5fb85b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_async_client_cleanup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import asyncio
+import warnings
+
+import pytest
+
+from stagehand._base_client import AsyncHttpxClientWrapper
+
+
+def test_unclosed_async_http_client_warns_without_running_loop() -> None:
+    client = AsyncHttpxClientWrapper()
+
+    with pytest.warns(ResourceWarning, match="Unclosed async HTTP client"):
+        client.__del__()
+
+    asyncio.run(client.aclose())
+
+
+def test_closed_async_http_client_does_not_warn() -> None:
+    client = AsyncHttpxClientWrapper()
+    asyncio.run(client.aclose())
+
+    with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as caught:
+        warnings.simplefilter("always")
+        client.__del__()
+
+    assert caught == []