Web/API/HTMLFormElement/submit event

The submit event fires when a <form> is submitted.

Bubbles	Yes (although specified as a simple event that doesn't bubble)
Cancelable	Yes
Interface	`SubmitEvent`
Event handler property	`GlobalEventHandlers.onsubmit`

Note that the submit event fires on the <form> element itself, and not on any <button> or <input type="submit"> inside it. However, the SubmitEvent which is sent to indicate the form's submit action has been triggered includes a submitter property, which is the button that was invoked to trigger the submit request.

The submit event fires when the user clicks a submit button (<button> or <input type="submit">) or presses Enter while editing a field (e.g. <input type="text">) in a form. The event is not sent to the form when calling the form.submit() method directly.

Note: Trying to submit a form that does not pass validation triggers an invalid event. In this case, the validation prevents form submission, and thus there is no submit event.

Examples

This example uses EventTarget.addEventListener() to listen for form submit, and logs the current Event.timeStamp whenever that occurs, then prevents the default action of submitting the form.

HTML

<form id="form">
  <label>Test field: <input type="text"></label>
  <br><br>
  <button type="submit">Submit form</button>
</form>
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

function logSubmit(event) {
  log.textContent = `Form Submitted! Time stamp: ${event.timeStamp}`;
  event.preventDefault();
}

const form = document.getElementById('form');
const log = document.getElementById('log');
form.addEventListener('submit', logSubmit);

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'submit' in that specification.	Working Draft	No change
HTML 5.2The definition of 'submit' in that specification.	Recommendation	No change
HTML 5.1The definition of 'submit' in that specification.	Recommendation	No change
HTML5The definition of 'submit' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

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
`submit` event	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 3	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support