Web/API/HTMLMediaElement/canPlayType

The HTMLMediaElement method canPlayType() reports how likely it is that the current browser will be able to play media of a given MIME type.

Note: This feature is not available in Web Workers.

Syntax

canPlayResponse = audioOrVideo.canPlayType(mediaType);

A DOMString indicating how likely it is that the media can be played. The string will be one of the following values:

probably: Media of the type indicated by the mediaType parameter is probably playable on this device.
maybe: Not enough information is available to determine for sure whether or not the media will play until playback is actually attempted.
"" (empty string): Media of the given type definitely can't be played on the current device.

var obj = document.createElement('video');
console.log(obj.canPlayType('video/mp4')); // "maybe"

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'canplaytype' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5The definition of 'HTMLMediaElement.canplaytype' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

	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
`canPlayType()`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5 Notes' Full support 3.5 Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 28, `canPlayType()` returned `probably` when asked about WebM audio or video files without the `codecs` parameter. Since multiple codecs are supported, this is not enough information to determine if a file can be played, so `maybe` is now correctly returned.	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 6	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes