GPUComputePassEncoder

Limited availability

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

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

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 GPUComputePassEncoder interface of the WebGPU API encodes commands related to controlling the compute shader stage, as issued by a GPUComputePipeline. It forms part of the overall encoding activity of a GPUCommandEncoder.

A compute pipeline contains a single compute stage in which a compute shader takes general data, processes it in parallel across a specified number of workgroups, then returns the result in one or more buffers.

A GPUComputePassEncoder object instance is created via the GPUCommandEncoder.beginComputePass() property.

Instance properties

label Experimental

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

Instance methods

dispatchWorkgroups() Experimental

Dispatches a specific grid of workgroups to perform the work being done by the current GPUComputePipeline.

dispatchWorkgroupsIndirect() Experimental

Dispatches a grid of workgroups, defined by the parameters of a GPUBuffer, to perform the work being done by the current GPUComputePipeline.

end() Experimental

Completes recording of the current compute pass command sequence.

insertDebugMarker() Experimental

Marks a specific point in a series of encoded commands with a label.

popDebugGroup() Experimental

Ends a debug group, which is begun with a pushDebugGroup() call.

pushDebugGroup() Experimental

Begins a debug group, which is marked with a specified label, and will contain all subsequent encoded commands up until a popDebugGroup() method is invoked.

setBindGroup() Experimental

Sets the GPUBindGroup to use for subsequent compute commands, for a given index.

setPipeline() Experimental

Sets the GPUComputePipeline to use for this compute pass.

Examples

In our basic compute demo, several commands are recorded via a GPUCommandEncoder. Most of these commands originate from the GPUComputePassEncoder created via GPUCommandEncoder.beginComputePass().

js
// ...

// Create GPUCommandEncoder to encode commands to issue to the GPU
const commandEncoder = device.createCommandEncoder();

// Create GPUComputePassEncoder to initiate compute pass
const passEncoder = commandEncoder.beginComputePass();

// Issue commands
passEncoder.setPipeline(computePipeline);
passEncoder.setBindGroup(0, bindGroup);
passEncoder.dispatchWorkgroups(Math.ceil(BUFFER_SIZE / 64));

// End the compute pass
passEncoder.end();

// Copy output buffer to staging buffer
commandEncoder.copyBufferToBuffer(
  output,
  0, // Source offset
  stagingBuffer,
  0, // Destination offset
  BUFFER_SIZE,
);

// End frame by passing array of command buffers to command queue for execution
device.queue.submit([commandEncoder.finish()]);

// ...

Specifications

Specification
WebGPU
# gpucomputepassencoder

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobileserver
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Deno
GPUComputePassEncoder
Experimental
dispatchWorkgroups
Experimental
dispatchWorkgroupsIndirect
Experimental
end
Experimental
insertDebugMarker
Experimental
label
Experimental
popDebugGroup
Experimental
pushDebugGroup
Experimental
setBindGroup
Experimental
Pass null to unset bind group
Experimental
setPipeline
Experimental
writeTimestamp
ExperimentalNon-standard

Legend

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

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
In development. Supported in a pre-release version.
In development. Supported in a pre-release version.
No support
No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
Non-standard. Check cross-browser support before using.
See implementation notes.
User must explicitly enable this feature.
Has more compatibility info.

See also