Web/API/XMLHttpRequest

XMLHttpRequest (XHR) objects are used to interact with servers. You can retrieve data from a URL without having to do a full page refresh. This enables a Web page to update just part of a page without disrupting what the user is doing. XMLHttpRequest is used heavily in AJAX programming.

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Despite its name, XMLHttpRequest can be used to retrieve any type of data, not just XML.

If your communication needs to involve receiving event data or message data from a server, consider using server-sent events through the EventSource interface. For full-duplex communication, WebSockets may be a better choice.

Constructor

XMLHttpRequest()

The constructor initializes an XMLHttpRequest. It must be called before any other method calls.

Properties

This interface also inherits properties of XMLHttpRequestEventTarget and of EventTarget.

XMLHttpRequest.onreadystatechange

An EventHandler that is called whenever the readyState attribute changes.

XMLHttpRequest.readyState Read only

Returns an unsigned short, the state of the request.

XMLHttpRequest.response Read only

Returns an ArrayBuffer, Blob, Document, JavaScript object, or a DOMString, depending on the value of XMLHttpRequest.responseType, that contains the response entity body.

XMLHttpRequest.responseText Read only

Returns a DOMString that contains the response to the request as text, or null if the request was unsuccessful or has not yet been sent.

XMLHttpRequest.responseType

Is an enumerated value that defines the response type.

XMLHttpRequest.responseURL Read only

Returns the serialized URL of the response or the empty string if the URL is null.

XMLHttpRequest.responseXML Read only

Returns a Document containing the response to the request, or null if the request was unsuccessful, has not yet been sent, or cannot be parsed as XML or HTML. Not available in workers.

XMLHttpRequest.status Read only

Returns an unsigned short with the status of the response of the request.

XMLHttpRequest.statusText Read only

Returns a DOMString containing the response string returned by the HTTP server. Unlike XMLHttpRequest.status, this includes the entire text of the response message ("200 OK", for example).

Note: According to the HTTP/2 specification (8.1.2.4 Response Pseudo-Header Fields), HTTP/2 does not define a way to carry the version or reason phrase that is included in an HTTP/1.1 status line.

XMLHttpRequest.timeout

Is an unsigned long representing the number of milliseconds a request can take before automatically being terminated.

XMLHttpRequestEventTarget.ontimeout

Is an EventHandler that is called whenever the request times out.

XMLHttpRequest.upload Read only

Is an XMLHttpRequestUpload, representing the upload process.

XMLHttpRequest.withCredentials

Is a Boolean that indicates whether or not cross-site Access-Control requests should be made using credentials such as cookies or authorization headers.

Non-standard properties

XMLHttpRequest.channelRead only

Is a nsIChannel. The channel used by the object when performing the request.

XMLHttpRequest.mozAnonRead only

Is a boolean. If true, the request will be sent without cookie and authentication headers.

XMLHttpRequest.mozSystemRead only

Is a boolean. If true, the same origin policy will not be enforced on the request.

XMLHttpRequest.mozBackgroundRequest

Is a boolean. It indicates whether or not the object represents a background service request.

XMLHttpRequest.mozResponseArrayBuffer Obsolete since Gecko 6 Read only

ArrayBuffer. The response to the request, as a JavaScript typed array.

XMLHttpRequest.multipartObsolete since Gecko 22

This Gecko-only feature, a boolean, was removed in Firefox/Gecko 22. Please use Server-Sent Events, Web Sockets, or responseText from progress events instead.

Event handlers

onreadystatechange as a property of the XMLHttpRequest instance is supported in all browsers.

Since then, a number of additional event handlers have been implemented in various browsers (onload, onerror, onprogress, etc.). See Using XMLHttpRequest.

More recent browsers, including Firefox, also support listening to the XMLHttpRequest events via standard addEventListener() APIs in addition to setting on* properties to a handler function.

Methods

XMLHttpRequest.abort()

Aborts the request if it has already been sent.

XMLHttpRequest.getAllResponseHeaders()

Returns all the response headers, separated by CRLF, as a string, or null if no response has been received.

XMLHttpRequest.getResponseHeader()

Returns the string containing the text of the specified header, or null if either the response has not yet been received or the header doesn't exist in the response.

XMLHttpRequest.open()

Initializes a request.

XMLHttpRequest.overrideMimeType()

Overrides the MIME type returned by the server.

XMLHttpRequest.send()

Sends the request. If the request is asynchronous (which is the default), this method returns as soon as the request is sent.

XMLHttpRequest.setRequestHeader()

Sets the value of an HTTP request header. You must call setRequestHeader()after open(), but before send().

Non-standard methods

XMLHttpRequest.init()

Initializes the object for use from C++ code.

Warning: This method must not be called from JavaScript.

XMLHttpRequest.openRequest()

Initializes a request. This method is to be used from native code; to initialize a request from JavaScript code, use open() instead. See the documentation for open().

XMLHttpRequest.sendAsBinary() '

A variant of the send() method that sends binary data.

Events

abort

Fired when a request has been aborted, for example because the program called XMLHttpRequest.abort(). Also available via the onabort property.

error

Fired when the request encountered an error. Also available via the onerror property.

load

Fired when an XMLHttpRequest transaction completes successfully. Also available via the onload property.

loadend

Fired when a request has completed, whether successfully (after load) or unsuccessfully (after abort or error). Also available via the onloadend property.

loadstart

Fired when a request has started to load data. Also available via the onloadstart property.

progress

Fired periodically when a request receives more data. Also available via the onprogress property.

timeout

Fired when progress is terminated due to preset time expiring. Also available via the ontimeout property.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
XMLHttpRequest	Living Standard	Live standard, latest version

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

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
XMLHttpRequest	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 7 Full support 7 Full support 5 Notes' Notes' Implemented via ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP')	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
abort	Chrome Full support 18	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 1.2	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
abort event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
error event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
getAllResponseHeaders	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Starting from Firefox 49, empty headers are returned as empty strings in case the preference network.http.keep_empty_response_headers_as_empty_string is set to true, defaulting to false. Before Firefox 49 empty headers had been ignored. Since Firefox 50 the preference defaults to true.	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 1.2	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Starting from Firefox 49, empty headers are returned as empty strings in case the preference network.http.keep_empty_response_headers_as_empty_string is set to true, defaulting to false. Before Firefox 49 empty headers had been ignored. Since Firefox 50 the preference defaults to true.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
getResponseHeader	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Starting from Firefox 49, empty headers are returned as empty strings in case the preference network.http.keep_empty_response_headers_as_empty_string is set to true, defaulting to false. Before Firefox 49 empty headers had been ignored. Since Firefox 50 the preference defaults to true.	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Starting from Firefox 49, empty headers are returned as empty strings in case the preference network.http.keep_empty_response_headers_as_empty_string is set to true, defaulting to false. Before Firefox 49 empty headers had been ignored. Since Firefox 50 the preference defaults to true.	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
load event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
loadend event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
loadstart event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
onreadystatechange	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 9	Safari Full support 1.2	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
open	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Starting in Firefox 30, synchronous requests on the main thread have been deprecated due to their negative impact on performance and the user experience. Therefore, the async parameter may not be false except in a Worker.	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Starting in Firefox 30, synchronous requests on the main thread have been deprecated due to their negative impact on performance and the user experience. Therefore, the async parameter may not be false except in a Worker.	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
overrideMimeType	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 11 Full support 11 Full support 5 Notes' Notes' Implemented via ActiveXObject	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 1.2	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
progress event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
readyState	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 7	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
response	Chrome Full support 9	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 6	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 11.6	Safari Full support 5.1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 6	Opera Android Full support 12	Safari iOS Full support 6	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
responseText	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5 Notes' Full support 5 Notes' Notes' Before Internet Explorer 10, the value of XMLHttpRequest.responseText could be read only once the request was complete.	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
responseType	Chrome Full support 31	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 6	IE Full support 10	Opera No support 12 — 15 No support 12 — 15 Full support 18	Safari Full support 7	WebView Android Full support 55	Chrome Android Full support 55	Firefox Android Full support 50	Opera Android Full support 42	Safari iOS Full support 7	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
responseURL	Chrome Full support 37	Edge Full support 14	Firefox Full support 32	IE No support No	Opera Full support 24	Safari Full support 8	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 37	Firefox Android Full support 32	Opera Android Full support 24	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0
responseXML	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a <parsererror> node to the top of the Document and then returned the Document in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns null as per the spec.	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a <parsererror> node to the top of the Document and then returned the Document in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns null as per the spec.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
send	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
sendAsBinary Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' There is a polyfill available to support sendAsBinary().	Edge No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' There is a polyfill available to support sendAsBinary().	Firefox No support 2 — 31	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' There is a polyfill available to support sendAsBinary().	Chrome Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' There is a polyfill available to support sendAsBinary().	Firefox Android No support 4 — 31	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' There is a polyfill available to support sendAsBinary().
setRequestHeader	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
status	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 7 Notes' Full support 7 Notes' Notes' Internet Explorer version 5 and 6 supported ajax calls using ActiveXObject()	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.2	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
statusText	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 7 Notes' Full support 7 Notes' Notes' Internet Explorer version 5 and 6 supported ajax calls using ActiveXObject()	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 1.2	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
timeout	Chrome Full support 29	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 12	IE Full support 8	Opera Full support 17 Full support 17 No support 12 — 16	Safari Full support 6.1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 29	Firefox Android Full support 14	Opera Android Full support 18 Full support 18 No support 12 — 16	Safari iOS Full support 7	Samsung Internet Android Full support 2.0
timeout event	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤18	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	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
upload	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
withCredentials	Chrome Full support 3	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5 Notes' Full support 3.5 Notes' Notes' Starting with Firefox 11, it's no longer supported to use the withCredentials attribute when performing synchronous requests. Attempting to do so throws an NS_ERROR_DOM_INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.	IE Full support 10 Notes' Full support 10 Notes' Notes' Internet Explorer versions 8 and 9 supported cross-domain requests (CORS) using XDomainRequest.	Opera Full support 12	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Starting with Firefox 11, it's no longer supported to use the withCredentials attribute when performing synchronous requests. Attempting to do so throws an NS_ERROR_DOM_INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.	Opera Android Full support 12	Safari iOS Full support 3.2	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

Compatibility unknown  

Compatibility unknown

Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.'

Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.

Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.'

Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.

See implementation notes.'

See implementation notes.

See also

• XMLSerializer: Serializing a DOM tree into XML
• MDN tutorials covering XMLHttpRequest:
  • Ajax — Getting Started
  • Using XMLHttpRequest
  • HTML in XMLHttpRequest
  • Fetch API
• HTML5 Rocks — New Tricks in XMLHttpRequest2
• Feature-Policy directive sync-xhr

XMLHttpRequest by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.