Window: matchMedia() method

Syntax

matchMedia(mediaQueryString)

Parameters

mediaQueryString

A string specifying the media query to parse into a MediaQueryList.

Just like in CSS, any media feature must be wrapped in parentheses inside the expression. For example: matchMedia("(width <= 600px)") or matchMedia("(orientation: landscape)") work, whereas matchMedia("width < 600px") or matchMedia("orientation: landscape") do not. Keywords for media types (all, print, screen) and logical operators (and, or, not, only) do not need to be wrapped in parentheses.

Return value

A new MediaQueryList object for the media query. Use this object's properties and events to detect matches and to monitor for changes to those matches over time.

Usage notes

You can use the returned media query to perform both instantaneous and event-driven checks to see if the document matches the media query.

To perform a one-time, instantaneous check to see if the document matches the media query, look at the value of the matches property, which will be true if the document meets the media query's requirements.

If you need to be kept aware of whether or not the document matches the media query at all times, you can instead watch for the change event to be delivered to the object. There's a good example of this in the article on Window.devicePixelRatio.

Examples

This example runs the media query (width <= 600px) and displays the value of the resulting MediaQueryList's matches property in a <span>; as a result, the output will say "true" if the viewport is less than or equal to 600 pixels wide, and will say "false" if the window is wider than that.

JavaScript

let mql = window.matchMedia("(width <= 600px)");

document.querySelector(".mq-value").innerText = mql.matches;

The JavaScript code passes the media query to match into matchMedia() to compile it, then sets the <span>'s innerText to the value of the results' matches property, so that it indicates whether or not the document matches the media query at the moment the page was loaded.

HTML

<span class="mq-value"></span>

A simple <span> to receive the output.

.mq-value {
  font:
    18px "Arial",
    sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  color: #8888ff;
  padding: 0.4em;
  border: 1px solid #ddddee;
}

Result

See Testing media queries programmatically for additional code examples.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Media queries
• Using media queries from code
• MediaQueryList