HTMLElement: copy event

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2017.

The copy event fires when the user initiates a copy action through the browser's user interface.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

js
addEventListener("copy", (event) => {});

oncopy = (event) => {};

Event type

Event properties

Also inherits properties from its parent Event.

ClipboardEvent.clipboardData Read only

A DataTransfer object containing the data affected by the user-initiated cut, copy, or paste operation, along with its MIME type.

Example

This example blocks every copy and paste attempt from the <textarea>.

HTML

html
<h3>Play with this text area:</h3>
<textarea id="editor" rows="3">
Try copying and pasting text into this field!
</textarea>

<h3>Log:</h3>
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

js
const log = document.getElementById("log");

function logCopy(event) {
  log.innerText = `Copy blocked!\n${log.innerText}`;
  event.preventDefault();
}

function logPaste(event) {
  log.innerText = `Paste blocked!\n${log.innerText}`;
  event.preventDefault();
}

const editor = document.getElementById("editor");

editor.oncopy = logCopy;
editor.onpaste = logPaste;

Result

Specifications

Specification
Clipboard API and events
# clipboard-event-copy
HTML
# handler-oncopy

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
copy event

Legend

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

Full support
Full support

See also