WebCodecs API

WebCodecs API — The WebCodecs API gives web apps low-level, hardware-accelerated access to encode and decode individual video frames and audio chunks via VideoEncoder, VideoDecoder, AudioEncoder, and AudioDecoder.

Browser & ecosystem support

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

Browser / Platform	Support	Versions	Confidence	Source	Notes
Chrome (Desktop)	Yes	94	high	source	1
Chrome (Android)	Yes	94	high	source	23
Edge (Desktop)	Yes	94	high	source	45
Firefox (Desktop)	Yes	130	high	source	6
Firefox (Android)	No	—	high	source	78
Safari (macOS)	Yes	16.4	high	source	9
Safari (iOS)	Yes	16.4	high	source	1011
Samsung Internet	Yes	17.0	high	source	1213
WebView (Android)	Yes	94	high	source	1415
Chrome (Desktop)	Yes	94	high	source	16
Chrome (Android)	Yes	94	high	source	1718
Edge (Desktop)	Yes	94	high	source	1920
Firefox (Desktop)	Yes	130	high	source	21
Firefox (Android)	No	—	high	source	2223
Safari (macOS)	Yes	26	high	source	24
Safari (iOS)	Yes	26	high	source	2526
Samsung Internet	Yes	17.0	high	source	2728
WebView (Android)	Yes	94	high	source	2930

1. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
2. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
3. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
4. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
5. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
6. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
7. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
8. No Firefox for Android support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
9. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
10. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
11. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Safari.
12. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
13. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome Android.
14. Covers the `VideoDecoder` entry.
15. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome Android.
16. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
17. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
18. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
19. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
20. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome.
21. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
22. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
23. No Firefox for Android support is recorded in browser-compat-data.
24. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
25. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
26. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Safari.
27. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
28. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome Android.
29. Covers the `AudioDecoder` entry.
30. Derived by browser-compat-data mirroring from Chrome Android.

Source data: /compatibility/webcodecs.json · Global usage: 92 % (StatCounter 2026-05)

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

How to use it

VideoDecoder takes an output callback for each decoded frame and an error callback, then decodes chunks you feed it via decode():

function createVideoDecoder(onFrame) {
  const decoder = new VideoDecoder({
    output: (frame) => {
      onFrame(frame);
      frame.close();
    },
    error: (e) => console.error(e),
  });
  return decoder;
}

How to detect it at runtime

Check for VideoDecoder before creating one. When it is absent, disable the frame-by-frame feature and show that it is unavailable:

if ('VideoDecoder' in window) {
  enableFrameByFrameProcessing();
} else {
  disableFrameByFrameProcessing();
  showFrameByFrameUnavailableMessage();
}

Practical checklist

• VideoFrame and AudioData objects reference-count their underlying media resources — call close() on each one as soon as you are done with it. For output VideoFrames owned by a VideoDecoder, waiting on garbage collection to reclaim them can stall further decoding.
• Safari shipped VideoDecoder support starting in Safari 16.4; feature-detect the specific interface you need rather than assuming other WebCodecs interfaces ship on the same schedule.
• Firefox added VideoDecoder on desktop in Firefox 130, but that addition did not extend to Firefox for Android, so VideoDecoder is undefined there.
• An unsupported or invalid codec string does not make configure() reject a promise — configure() closes the decoder and delivers a NotSupportedError to its error callback, or throws a synchronous TypeError if the config fails validation. Always pass the fully-qualified codec string your source media actually uses.

Where to go next

For the full reference (worker usage and the fully-specified codec-string requirement), see WebCodecs: low-level, hardware-accelerated audio and video encoding.

See also WebGPU.

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