Document.characterSet

The Document.characterSet read-only property returns the character encoding of the document that it's currently rendered with. (A character encoding is a set of characters and how to interpret bytes into those characters.)

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

Users can override the developer-specified encoding inside the Content-Type header or inline like <meta charset="utf-8">, such as with Firefox's View → Text Encoding menu. This override is provided to fix incorrect developer-specified encodings that result in garbled text.

The properties document.charset and document.inputEncoding are legacy aliases for document.characterSet. Do not use them any more.

Syntax

var string = document.characterSet;

Examples

<button onclick="console.log(document.characterSet);">
  Log character encoding
</button>
<!-- displays document's character encoding in the dev console, such as "ISO-8859-1" or "UTF-8" -->

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM The definition of 'characterSet' in that specification.	Living Standard	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

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
`characterSet`	Chrome Full support 1 Full support 1 Full support 1 Notes Alternate Name Notes `charset` alias was made read-only in 45. Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` Full support 1 Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Edge Full support Yes Full support Yes Full support Yes Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Firefox Full support Yes Full support Yes Full support 44 Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` Full support Yes Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	IE ? ? ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Opera Full support Yes Full support Yes ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Safari Full support Yes Full support Yes Full support 9 Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	WebView Android Full support 45 Full support 45 Full support Yes Notes Alternate Name Notes `charset` alias was made read-only in 45. Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` Full support Yes Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Chrome Android Full support 45 Full support 45 Full support Yes Notes Alternate Name Notes `charset` alias was made read-only in 45. Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` Full support Yes Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Firefox Android Full support Yes Full support Yes Full support 44 Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` Full support Yes Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Opera Android Full support Yes Full support Yes ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Safari iOS Full support Yes Full support Yes ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `charset` ? Alternate Name Alternate Name Uses the non-standard name: `inputEncoding`	Samsung Internet Android ?

Legend

Full support: Full support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
See implementation notes.: See implementation notes.
Uses a non-standard name.: Uses a non-standard name.

Last modified:

Mar 18, 2019, by MDN contributors