diff --git a/packages/playwright/src/program.ts b/packages/playwright/src/program.ts
index 801c88bc98aea..fe09d6f1a6eaf 100644
--- a/packages/playwright/src/program.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright/src/program.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import { runAllTestsWithConfig, TestRunner } from './runner/testRunner';
 import { createErrorCollectingReporter } from './runner/reporters';
 import { TestServerBackend, testServerBackendTools } from './mcp/test/testBackend';
 import { ClaudeGenerator, OpencodeGenerator, VSCodeGenerator, CopilotGenerator } from './agents/generateAgents';
+import { loadTestList } from './runner/loadUtils';
 
 import type { ConfigCLIOverrides } from './common/ipc';
 import type { TraceMode } from '../types/test';
@@ -208,6 +209,12 @@ async function runTests(args: string[], opts: { [key: string]: any }) {
   config.cliTestList = opts.testList ? path.resolve(process.cwd(), opts.testList) : undefined;
   config.cliTestListInvert = opts.testListInvert ? path.resolve(process.cwd(), opts.testListInvert) : undefined;
 
+  if (config.cliTestList) {
+    const { files } = await loadTestList(config, config.cliTestList);
+    for (const project of config.projects)
+      project.project.testMatch = files;
+  }
+
   // Evaluate project filters against config before starting execution. This enables a consistent error message across run modes
   filterProjects(config.projects, config.cliProjectFilter);
 
diff --git a/packages/playwright/src/runner/loadUtils.ts b/packages/playwright/src/runner/loadUtils.ts
index f97066c229192..eafc9388f1d34 100644
--- a/packages/playwright/src/runner/loadUtils.ts
+++ b/packages/playwright/src/runner/loadUtils.ts
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ function sourceMapSources(file: string, cache: Map<string, string[]>): string[]
   }
 }
 
-export async function loadTestList(config: FullConfigInternal, filePath: string): Promise<TestCaseFilter> {
+export async function loadTestList(config: FullConfigInternal, filePath: string): Promise<TestCaseFilter & { files: string[] }> {
   try {
     const content = await fs.promises.readFile(filePath, 'utf-8');
     const lines = content.split('\n').map(line => line.trim()).filter(line => line && !line.startsWith('#'));
@@ -366,8 +366,7 @@ export async function loadTestList(config: FullConfigInternal, filePath: string)
       }
       return { project, file: toPosixPath(parseLocationArg(tokens[0]).file), titlePath: tokens.slice(1) };
     });
-    return (test: TestCase) => descriptions.some(d => {
-      // Note: there is no root yet at the time of filtering.
+    const filter = (test: TestCase) => descriptions.some(d => {
       const [projectName, , ...titles] = test.titlePath();
       if (d.project !== undefined && d.project !== projectName)
         return false;
@@ -376,6 +375,8 @@ export async function loadTestList(config: FullConfigInternal, filePath: string)
         return false;
       return d.titlePath.length <= titles.length && d.titlePath.every((_, index) => titles[index] === d.titlePath[index]);
     });
+    filter.files = [...new Set(descriptions.map(d => d.file))];
+    return filter;
   } catch (e) {
     throw errorWithFile(filePath, 'Cannot read test list file: ' + e.message);
   }
diff --git a/tests/playwright-test/test-list.spec.ts b/tests/playwright-test/test-list.spec.ts
index f57d502a676d9..3c77abc80ce68 100644
--- a/tests/playwright-test/test-list.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/playwright-test/test-list.spec.ts
@@ -226,3 +226,28 @@ test('--test-list with nested group entry should run only tests in that nested g
     'd-test2-p2',
   ]);
 });
+
+test('--test-list should not load files not in the list', async ({ runInlineTest }) => {
+  const result = await runInlineTest({
+    'playwright.config.ts': `
+      module.exports = { testDir: '.' };
+    `,
+    'test.list': `
+      good.test.ts
+    `,
+    'good.test.ts': `
+      import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
+      test('good test', async () => { console.log('\\n%%good-test'); });
+    `,
+    'broken.test.ts': `
+      // This file uses invalid syntax that would crash if loaded
+      describe('broken', () => {
+        it('should fail', () => {});
+      });
+    `,
+  }, { 'workers': 1, 'test-list': 'test.list' });
+  // Should succeed without loading broken.test.ts
+  expect(result.exitCode).toBe(0);
+  expect(result.passed).toBe(1);
+  expect(result.outputLines).toEqual(['good-test']);
+});