HTMLElement: autocapitalize property

Limited availability

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

The autocapitalize property of the HTMLElement interface represents the element's capitalization behavior for user input. It is available on all HTML elements, though it doesn't affect all of them, including:

autocapitalize doesn't affect behavior when typing on a physical keyboard. It affects the behavior of other input mechanisms such as virtual keyboards on mobile devices and voice input. This can assist users by making data entry quicker and easier, for example by automatically capitalizing the first letter of each sentence.

It reflects the value of the autocapitalize HTML global attribute.

Value

A string that represents the element's capitalization behavior for user input. Valid values are as follows:

none or off

No autocapitalization should be applied, that is, all letters should default to lowercase.

sentences or on

The first letter of each sentence should default to a capital letter; all other letters should default to lowercase.

words

The first letter of each word should default to a capital letter; all other letters should default to lowercase.

characters

All letters should default to uppercase.

Examples

The following example shows how to control capitalization behavior for user input via script:

html
<div>Current capitalization behavior is: <span id="ac-label"></span></div>
<div id="ac-element" contenteditable="true" autocapitalize="default">
  input here
</div>
<select id="ac-controller" type="checkbox" checked>
  <option value="default">default</option>
  <option value="none">none</option>
  <option value="sentences">sentences</option>
  <option value="words">words</option>
  <option value="characters">characters</option></select
>Select the capitalization behavior
js
const label = document.getElementById("ac-label");
const element = document.getElementById("ac-element");
const controller = document.getElementById("ac-controller");

controller.addEventListener("input", (e) => {
  const behavior = e.target.value;
  label.textContent = behavior;
  element.autocapitalize = behavior;
});

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-autocapitalize-dev

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
autocapitalize

Legend

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

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
No support
No support
Has more compatibility info.

See also