Web/HTML/Element/form

The HTML <form> element represents a document section containing interactive controls for submitting information.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

It is possible to use the :valid and :invalid CSS pseudo-classes to style a <form> element based on whether or not the elements inside the form are valid.

Content categories	Flow content, palpable content
Permitted content	Flow content, but not containing <form> elements
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts flow content
Implicit ARIA role	form if the form has an accessible name, otherwise no corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	search, none or presentation
DOM interface	HTMLFormElement

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

accept '

Comma-separated content types the server accepts.

This attribute was removed in HTML5 and should not be used. Instead, use the accept attribute on <input type=file> elements.

accept-charset

Space-separated character encodings the server accepts. The browser uses them in the order in which they are listed. The default value means the same encoding as the page. (In previous versions of HTML, character encodings could also be delimited by commas.)

autocapitalize '

A nonstandard attribute used by iOS Safari that controls how textual form elements should be automatically capitalized. autocapitalize attributes on a form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

• none: No automatic capitalization.
• sentences (default): Capitalize the first letter of each sentence.
• words: Capitalize the first letter of each word.
• characters: Capitalize all characters — that is, uppercase.

autocomplete

Indicates whether input elements can by default have their values automatically completed by the browser. autocomplete attributes on form elements override it on <form>. Possible values:

• off: The browser may not automatically complete entries. (Browsers tend to ignore this for suspected login forms; see The autocomplete attribute and login fields.)
• on: The browser may automatically complete entries. 

name

The name of the form. Deprecated as of HTML 4 (use id instead). It must be unique among the forms in a document and not an empty string as of HTML5.

rel

Creates a hyperlink or annotation depending on the value, see the [1]rel attribute for details.

Attributes for form submission

The following attributes control behavior during form submission.

action

The URL that processes the form submission. This value can be overridden by a formaction attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element.

enctype

If the value of the method attribute is post, enctype is the MIME type of the form submission. Possible values:

• application/x-www-form-urlencoded: The default value.
• multipart/form-data: Use this if the form contains <input> elements with type=file.
• text/plain: Introduced by HTML5 for debugging purposes.

This value can be overridden by formenctype attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

method

The HTTP method to submit the form with. Possible (case insensitive) values:

• post: The POST method; form data sent as the request body.
• get: The GET method; form data appended to the action URL with a ? separator. Use this method when the form has no side-effects.
• dialog: When the form is inside a <dialog>, closes the dialog on submission.

This value is overridden by formmethod attributes on <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> elements.

novalidate

This Boolean attribute indicates that the form shouldn't be validated when submitted. If this attribute is not set (and therefore the form is validated), it can be overridden by a formnovalidate attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element belonging to the form.

target

Indicates where to display the response after submitting the form. In HTML 4, this is the name/keyword for a frame. In HTML5, it is a name/keyword for a browsing context (for example, tab, window, or iframe). The following keywords have special meanings:

• _self (default): Load into the same browsing context as the current one.
• _blank: Load into a new unnamed browsing context.
• _parent: Load into the parent browsing context of the current one. If no parent, behaves the same as _self.
• _top: Load into the top-level browsing context (i.e., the browsing context that is an ancestor of the current one and has no parent). If no parent, behaves the same as _self.

This value can be overridden by a formtarget attribute on a <button>, <input type="submit">, or <input type="image"> element.

Examples

HTML

<!-- Form which will send a GET request to the current URL -->
<form>
  <label>Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form which will send a POST request to the current URL -->
<form method="post">
  <label>Name:
    <input name="submitted-name" autocomplete="name">
  </label>
  <button>Save</button>
</form>

<!-- Form with fieldset, legend, and label -->
<form method="post">
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Title</legend>
    <label><input type="radio" name="radio"> Select me</label>
  </fieldset>
</form>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of '<form>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5The definition of '<form>' in that specification.	Recommendation
HTML 4.01 SpecificationThe definition of '<form>' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

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
form	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
accept Deprecated'	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
accept-charset	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
action	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
autocapitalize Non-standard'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android No support No
autocomplete	Chrome Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' The Google Chrome UI for auto-complete request varies, depending on whether autocomplete is set to off on <input> elements as well as their form. Specifically, when a form has autocomplete set to off and its <input> element's autocomplete attribute is not set, then if the user asks for autofill suggestions for the <input> element, Chrome might display a message saying 'autocomplete has been disabled for this form.' On the other hand, if both the form and the input element have autocomplete set to off, the browser will not display that message. For this reason, you should set autocomplete to off for each <input> that has custom auto-completion.	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
enctype	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
method	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
name	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
novalidate	Chrome Full support 10	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 4	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
target	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	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	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

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

• HTML forms guide
• Other elements that are used when creating forms: <button>, <datalist>, <fieldset>, <input>,<keygen>, <label>, <legend>, <meter>, <optgroup>, <option>, <output>, <progress>, <select>, <textarea>.
• Getting a list of the elements in the form: HTMLFormElement.elements
• ARIA: Form role
• ARIA: Search role

<form> by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.