Periodic Background Sync support

Periodic Background Sync lets a web app’s service worker periodically synchronize data in the background, so a PWA can show fresh content immediately on launch instead of fetching it while the user waits.

Browser & ecosystem support

• Legend
• Yes
• Partial
• Flag
• No
• Unknown

Browser / Platform	Support	Versions	Confidence	Source	Notes
Chrome (Desktop)	Yes	80	high	source	—
Chrome (Android)	Yes	80	high	source	1
Edge (Desktop)	Yes	80	high	source	2
Firefox (Desktop)	No	—	high	source	3
Firefox (Android)	No	—	high	source	45
Safari (macOS)	No	—	high	source	6
Safari (iOS)	No	—	high	source	78
Samsung Internet	Yes	13.0	high	source	9
WebView (Android)	No	—	high	source	10

1. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
2. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
3. No Firefox support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
4. No Firefox for Android support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
5. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Firefox.
6. No Safari support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
7. No Safari on iOS support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
8. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Safari.
9. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome Android.
10. Implementation tracking: https://crbug.com/40151529.

Source data: /compatibility/periodic-background-sync.json · Global usage: 72 % (StatCounter 2026-05)

Source: spec · MDN · Last verified 2026-10-03 · Confidence: high (computed from sources)

How to use it

Register a periodic sync tag with a minimum interval (in milliseconds) once the service worker is ready:

async function registerPeriodicSync() {
  const registration = await navigator.serviceWorker.ready;
  await registration.periodicSync.register('get-latest-news', {
    minInterval: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
  });
}

In the service worker, handle the periodicsync event by tag:

self.addEventListener('periodicsync', (event) => {
  if (event.tag === 'get-latest-news') {
    event.waitUntil(fetchAndCacheLatestNews());
  }
});

How to detect it at runtime

Feature-detect periodicSync on the service worker registration before registering. When it is absent, fall back to refreshing content on page load instead:

async function scheduleRefresh() {
  const registration = await navigator.serviceWorker.ready;
  if ('periodicSync' in registration) {
    await registration.periodicSync.register('get-latest-news', {
      minInterval: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
    });
  } else {
    await fetchAndCacheLatestNews();
  }
}

Practical checklist

• Chrome grants the periodic background sync permission only to an installed web app that has been launched as a separate application — not to a page open in a regular browser tab.
• The browser, not your app, decides the actual sync frequency based on site engagement and other signals; treat minInterval as a lower bound, not a guarantee.
• Firefox and Safari do not implement this API — always provide a fallback refresh path (e.g. on page load) for those browsers.
• Use distinct tag values for independent periodic tasks and branch on event.tag in the periodicsync handler.

Where to go next

• Background Fetch
• WebTransport

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