1. Web
  2. Web APIs
  3. Document
  4. characterSet

Document: characterSet property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The Document.characterSet read-only property returns the character encoding of the document that it's currently rendered with.

Note: A "character set" and a "character encoding" are related, but different. Despite the name of this property, it returns the encoding.

Value

A string.

Examples

js
console.log(document.characterSet);
// document's character encoding, such as "ISO-8859-1" or "UTF-8"

Specifications

Specification
DOM
# ref-for-dom-document-characterset①

Browser compatibility

Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
characterSet
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in Chrome 45.
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1.5 (Release date: 2005-11-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 44 (Release date: 2016-01-26)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 15 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Opera – Full support
Opera 15 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in Opera 45.
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 3 (Release date: 2007-10-26)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Safari – Full support
Safari 3 (Release date: 2007-10-26)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
Safari – Full support
Safari 3 (Release date: 2007-10-26)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in Chrome Android 45.
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 44 (Release date: 2016-01-26)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 14 (Release date: 2013-05-21)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 14 (Release date: 2013-05-21)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in Opera 45.
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in Samsung Internet 5.0.
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 1 (Release date: 2008-09-23)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 1 (Release date: 2008-09-23)
footnote , altname
altname Alternate name: charset
footnote charset alias was made read-only in WebView 45.
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 1 (Release date: 2008-09-23)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: inputEncoding
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
altname
altname Alternate name: charset
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Uses a non-standard name
Has more compatibility info.

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