GPUDevice: createBuffer() method

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

See full compatibility

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The createBuffer() method of the GPUDevice interface creates a GPUBuffer in which to store raw data to use in GPU operations.

Syntax

createBuffer(descriptor)

Parameters

descriptor

An object containing the following properties:

label Optional

A string providing a label that can be used to identify the object, for example in GPUError messages or console warnings.

mappedAtCreation Optional

A boolean. If set to true, the buffer will be mapped upon creation, meaning that you can set the values inside the buffer immediately by calling GPUBuffer.getMappedRange(). The default value is false.

Note that it is valid to set mappedAtCreation: true so you can set the buffer's initial data, even if the GPUBufferUsage.MAP_READ or GPUBufferUsage.MAP_WRITE usage flags are not set.

size

A number representing the size of the buffer, in bytes. If mappedAtCreation is set to true, this must be a multiple of 4.

usage

The bitwise flags representing the allowed usages for the GPUBuffer. The possible values are in the GPUBuffer.usage value table.

Note that multiple possible usages can be specified by separating values with bitwise OR, for example: GPUBufferUsage.COPY_SRC | GPUBufferUsage.MAP_WRITE.

Return value

A GPUBuffer object instance.

Exceptions

RangeError DOMException: Thrown if mappedAtCreation is set to true, and the specified size is not a multiple of 4.

Validation

The following criteria must be met when calling createBuffer(), otherwise a GPUValidationError is generated and an invalid GPUBuffer object is returned:

A valid usage is specified.
GPUBufferUsage.MAP_READ is specified, and no additional flags are specified other than GPUBufferUsage.COPY_DST.
GPUBufferUsage.MAP_WRITE is specified, and no additional flags are specified other than GPUBufferUsage.COPY_SRC.

Note: If the buffer allocation fails without any specific side-effects, a GPUOutOfMemoryError object is generated.

Examples

In our basic compute demo, we create an output buffer to read GPU calculations to, and a staging buffer to be mapped for JavaScript access.

const output = device.createBuffer({
  size: BUFFER_SIZE,
  usage: GPUBufferUsage.STORAGE | GPUBufferUsage.COPY_SRC,
});

const stagingBuffer = device.createBuffer({
  size: BUFFER_SIZE,
  usage: GPUBufferUsage.MAP_READ | GPUBufferUsage.COPY_DST,
});

Specifications

Specification
WebGPU # dom-gpudevice-createbuffer

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile							server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS	Deno
`createBuffer`	Chrome – Partial support Chrome 113 (Release date: 2023-05-02) footnote Partial support footnote Supported on ChromeOS, macOS, and Windows. footnote Supported on Linux (Intel Gen12+ GPUs only) since Chrome 144. footnote Before version 138, this method does not throw a `RangeError` exception when `mappedAtCreation` is true but `size` is not a multiple of 4; it generates a validation error instead.	Edge – Partial support Edge 113 (Release date: 2023-05-05) footnote Partial support footnote Supported on ChromeOS, macOS, and Windows. footnote Supported on Linux (Intel Gen12+ GPUs only) since Edge 144. footnote Before version 138, this method does not throw a `RangeError` exception when `mappedAtCreation` is true but `size` is not a multiple of 4; it generates a validation error instead.	Firefox – Partial support Firefox 141 (Release date: 2025-07-22) footnote Partial support footnote Supports all contexts except service workers. See bug 1942431. footnote Supports Windows since Firefox 141. See bug 1972486. footnote Supports macOS Tahoe on Apple silicon since Firefox 145. See bug 1992212. footnote Supports older macOS versions on Apple silicon since Firefox 147. See bug 1993341. footnote Does not support macOS on Intel CPUs. See bug 2004105. footnote Does not support Linux. See bug 2006676.	Opera – Partial support Opera 99 (Release date: 2023-05-16) footnote Partial support footnote Supported on ChromeOS, macOS, and Windows. footnote Supported on Linux (Intel Gen12+ GPUs only) since Opera 128. footnote Before version 122, this method does not throw a `RangeError` exception when `mappedAtCreation` is true but `size` is not a multiple of 4; it generates a validation error instead.	Safari – Full support Safari 26 (Release date: 2025-09-15) footnote Full support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 121 (Release date: 2024-01-23) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – No support Firefox for Android footnote No support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 81 (Release date: 2024-03-14) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 26 (Release date: 2025-09-15) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 25 (Release date: 2024-04-24) footnote Full support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 121 (Release date: 2024-01-23) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 26 (Release date: 2025-09-15) footnote Full support	Deno – No support Deno 1.8 – 1.31 (Release date: 2021-03-02) footnote Removed in 1.32 and later Deno – No support Deno 1.39 (Release date: 2023-12-14) disabled disabled From version 1.39 users must explicitly set the `--unstable-webgpu` runtime flag.

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Full support: Full support
Partial support: Partial support
No support: No support
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GPUDevice: createBuffer() method

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