HTMLElement: inert property

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since April 2023.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The HTMLElement property inert reflects the value of the element's inert attribute. It is a boolean value that, when present, makes the browser "ignore" user input events for the element, including focus events and events from assistive technologies. The browser may also ignore page search and text selection in the element. This can be useful when building UIs such as modals where you would want to "trap" the focus inside the modal when it's visible.

Note that if the inert attribute is unspecified, the element itself may still inherit inertness from its parent. However, that inherited inertness is not reflected by this property's value. Explicitly setting the property to false cannot revert inertness inherited from the parent.

Value

A Boolean which is true if the element is inert; otherwise, the value is false.

Examples

HTML

html
<div>
  <label for="button1">Button 1</label>
  <button id="button1">I am not inert</button>
</div>
<div inert>
  <label for="button2">Button 2</label>
  <button id="button2">I am inert</button>
</div>

CSS

css
[inert] > * {
  opacity: 0.5;
}

Note: This attribute, by itself, will not cause any visual change to the content as displayed in the browser. In the example above, CSS has been applied so that any direct descendant of an element with the inert attribute is rendered semi-opaque.

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-inert

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
inert
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 102 (Release date: 2022-05-24)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 102 (Release date: 2022-05-31)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 112 (Release date: 2023-04-11)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 88 (Release date: 2022-06-08)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 15.5 (Release date: 2022-05-16)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 102 (Release date: 2022-05-24)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 112 (Release date: 2023-04-11)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 70 (Release date: 2022-06-29)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 15.5 (Release date: 2022-05-16)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 19 (Release date: 2022-11-01)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 102 (Release date: 2022-05-24)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 15.5 (Release date: 2022-05-16)
footnote Full support
Element is ignored for the purposes of find-in-page.
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 124 (Release date: 2024-04-16)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 124 (Release date: 2024-04-18)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 120 (Release date: 2023-11-21)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 110 (Release date: 2024-05-14)
footnote Full support
Safari – No support
Safari
footnote
footnote See bug 269909
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 124 (Release date: 2024-04-16)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 120 (Release date: 2023-11-21)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 82 (Release date: 2024-05-02)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – No support
Safari on iOS
footnote
footnote See bug 269909
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 27 (Release date: 2024-11-06)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 124 (Release date: 2024-04-16)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – No support
WebView on iOS
footnote
footnote See bug 269909

Legend

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

Full support
Full support
No support
No support
See implementation notes.

See also