Web/API/Element/copy event

The copy event fires when the user initiates a copy action through the browser's user interface.

Bubbles	Yes
Cancelable	Yes
Interface	`ClipboardEvent`
Event handler property	`oncopy`

The event's default action is to copy the selection (if any) to the clipboard.

A handler for this event can modify the clipboard contents by calling setData(format, data) on the event's ClipboardEvent.clipboardData property, and cancelling the event's default action using event.preventDefault().

However, the handler cannot read the clipboard data.

It's possible to construct and dispatch a synthetic copy event, but this will not affect the system clipboard.

Examples

Live example

HTML

<div class="source" contenteditable="true">Try copying text from this box...</div>
<div class="target" contenteditable="true">...and pasting it into this one</div>

CSS

div.source, div.target {
    border: 1px solid gray;
    margin: .5rem;
    padding: .5rem;
    height: 1rem;
    background-color: #e9eef1;
}

JS

const source = document.querySelector('div.source');

source.addEventListener('copy', (event) => {
    const selection = document.getSelection();
    event.clipboardData.setData('text/plain', selection.toString().toUpperCase());
    event.preventDefault();
});

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status
Clipboard API and events	Working Draft

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`copy` event	Chrome Full support 58	Edge Full support ≤18	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 45	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support 58	Chrome Android Full support 58	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support 43	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0
`clipboardData`	Chrome Full support 58	Edge Full support ≤18	Firefox Full support 22	IE No support No	Opera Full support 45	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support 58	Chrome Android Full support 58	Firefox Android Full support 22	Opera Android Full support 43	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support