Element: pointermove event

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2020⁩.

The pointermove event is fired when a pointer changes coordinates, and the pointer has not been canceled by a browser touch-action. It's very similar to the mousemove event, but with more features.

These events happen whether or not any pointer buttons are pressed. They can fire at a very high rate, depends on how fast the user moves the pointer, how fast the machine is, what other tasks and processes are happening, etc.

Syntax

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

addEventListener("pointermove", (event) => { })

onpointermove = (event) => { }

Event type

A PointerEvent. Inherits from Event.

Event properties

This interface inherits properties from MouseEvent and Event.

PointerEvent.altitudeAngle Read only Experimental: Represents the angle between a transducer (a pointer or stylus) axis and the X-Y plane of a device screen.
PointerEvent.azimuthAngle Read only Experimental: Represents the angle between the Y-Z plane and the plane containing both the transducer (a pointer or stylus) axis and the Y axis.
PointerEvent.persistentDeviceId Read only Experimental: A unique identifier for the pointing device generating the PointerEvent.
PointerEvent.pointerId Read only: A unique identifier for the pointer causing the event.
PointerEvent.width Read only: The width (magnitude on the X axis), in CSS pixels, of the contact geometry of the pointer.
PointerEvent.height Read only: The height (magnitude on the Y axis), in CSS pixels, of the contact geometry of the pointer.
PointerEvent.pressure Read only: The normalized pressure of the pointer input in the range 0 to 1, where 0 and 1 represent the minimum and maximum pressure the hardware is capable of detecting, respectively.
PointerEvent.tangentialPressure Read only: The normalized tangential pressure of the pointer input (also known as barrel pressure or cylinder stress) in the range -1 to 1, where 0 is the neutral position of the control.
PointerEvent.tiltX Read only: The plane angle (in degrees, in the range of -90 to 90) between the Y–Z plane and the plane containing both the pointer (e.g., pen stylus) axis and the Y axis.
PointerEvent.tiltY Read only: The plane angle (in degrees, in the range of -90 to 90) between the X–Z plane and the plane containing both the pointer (e.g., pen stylus) axis and the X axis.
PointerEvent.twist Read only: The clockwise rotation of the pointer (e.g., pen stylus) around its major axis in degrees, with a value in the range 0 to 359.
PointerEvent.pointerType Read only: Indicates the device type that caused the event (mouse, pen, touch, etc.).
PointerEvent.isPrimary Read only: Indicates if the pointer represents the primary pointer of this pointer type.

Usage notes

The event, which is of type PointerEvent, provides all the information you need to know about the user's interaction with the pointing device, including the position, movement distance, button states, and much more.

Examples

To add a handler for pointermove events using addEventListener():

const para = document.querySelector("p");

para.addEventListener("pointermove", (event) => {
  console.log("Pointer moved");
});

You can also use the onpointermove event handler property:

const para = document.querySelector("p");

para.onpointermove = (event) => {
  console.log("Pointer moved");
};

Specifications

Specification
Pointer Events # the-pointermove-event
Pointer Events # dom-globaleventhandlers-onpointermove

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Sep 25, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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