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window.requestAnimationFrame

The window.requestAnimationFrame() method tells the browser that you wish to perform an animation and requests that the browser call a specified function to update an animation before the next repaint. The method takes a callback as an argument to be invoked before the repaint.

Note: Your callback routine must itself call requestAnimationFrame() if you want to animate another frame at the next repaint.

You should call this method whenever you're ready to update your animation onscreen. This will request that your animation function be called before the browser performs the next repaint. The number of callbacks is usually 60 times per second, but will generally match the display refresh rate in most web browsers as per W3C recommendation. requestAnimationFrame() calls are paused in most browsers when running in background tabs or hidden <iframe>s in order to improve performance and battery life.

The callback method is passed a single argument, a DOMHighResTimeStamp, which indicates the current time when callbacks queued by requestAnimationFrame() begin to fire. Multiple callbacks in a single frame, therefore, each receive the same timestamp even though time has passed during the computation of every previous callback's workload. This timestamp is a decimal number, in milliseconds, but with a minimal precision of 1ms (1000 µs).

Syntax

window.requestAnimationFrame(callback);

Parameters

callback: The function to call when it's time to update your animation for the next repaint. The callback function is passed one single argument, a DOMHighResTimeStamp returned from performance.now(), indicating the point in time when requestAnimationFrame() starts to execute callback functions.

Return value

A long integer value, the request id, that uniquely identifies the entry in the callback list. This is a non-zero value, but you may not make any other assumptions about its value. You can pass this value to window.cancelAnimationFrame() to cancel the refresh callback request.

Example

var start = null;
var element = document.getElementById('SomeElementYouWantToAnimate');
element.style.position = 'absolute';

function step(timestamp) {
  if (!start) start = timestamp;
  var progress = timestamp - start;
  element.style.left = Math.min(progress / 10, 200) + 'px';
  if (progress < 2000) {
    window.requestAnimationFrame(step);
  }
}

window.requestAnimationFrame(step);

Specification

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'requestAnimationFrame' in that specification.	Living Standard	No change, supersedes the previous one.
Timing control for script-based animations The definition of 'requestAnimationFrame' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	24 24 10 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Yes	23 23 Callback parameter is a `DOMHighResTimestamp`. This means ten microsecond precision and zero time as `performance.now()`. 11 — 42 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: moz Callback parameter is a `DOMTimestamp`. This means millisecond precision and zero time as `Date.now()`. 4 — 11 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: moz Could be called with no input parameters.	10	15 15 Yes Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: o	6.1 6.1 6 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit
Return value	23	Yes	11	10	15	6.1

	Mobile
	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Edge Mobile	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	iOS Safari	Samsung Internet
Basic support	Yes	25 25 18 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Yes	23 23 14 — 42 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: moz	15	7.1 7.1 6.1 Prefixed Prefixed Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	?
Return value	Yes	25	Yes	14	15	6.1	?