Animation

Baseline Widely available

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

The Animation interface of the Web Animations API represents a single animation player and provides playback controls and a timeline for an animation node or source.

Constructor

Animation(): Creates a new Animation object instance.

Instance properties

Animation.currentTime: The current time value of the animation in milliseconds, whether running or paused. If the animation lacks a timeline, is inactive or hasn't been played yet, its value is null.
Animation.effect: Gets and sets the AnimationEffect associated with this animation. This will usually be a KeyframeEffect object.
Animation.finished Read only: Returns the current finished Promise for this animation.
Animation.id: Gets and sets the String used to identify the animation.
Animation.overallProgress Read only: Returns a number between 0 and 1 indicating the animation's overall progress towards its finished state.
Animation.pending Read only: Indicates whether the animation is currently waiting for an asynchronous operation such as initiating playback or pausing a running animation.
Animation.playState Read only: Returns an enumerated value describing the playback state of an animation.
Animation.playbackRate: Gets or sets the playback rate of the animation.
Animation.ready Read only: Returns the current ready Promise for this animation.
Animation.replaceState Read only: Indicates whether the animation is active, has been automatically removed after being replaced by another animation, or has been explicitly persisted by a call to Animation.persist().
Animation.startTime: Gets or sets the scheduled time when an animation's playback should begin.
Animation.timeline: Gets or sets the timeline associated with this animation.

Instance methods

Animation.cancel(): Clears all keyframeEffects caused by this animation and aborts its playback.
Animation.commitStyles(): Commits the current styling state of an animation to the element being animated, even after that animation has been removed. It will cause the current styling state to be written to the element being animated, in the form of properties inside a style attribute.
Animation.finish(): Seeks either end of an animation, depending on whether the animation is playing or reversing.
Animation.pause(): Suspends playing of an animation.
Animation.persist(): Explicitly persists an animation, preventing it from being automatically removed when another animation replaces it.
Animation.play(): Starts or resumes playing of an animation, or begins the animation again if it previously finished.
Animation.reverse(): Reverses playback direction, stopping at the start of the animation. If the animation is finished or unplayed, it will play from end to beginning.
Animation.updatePlaybackRate(): Sets the speed of an animation after first synchronizing its playback position.

Events

cancel: Fires when the Animation.cancel() method is called or when the animation enters the "idle" play state from another state.
finish: Fires when the animation finishes playing.
remove: Fires when the animation is automatically removed by the browser.

Blinking and flashing animation can be problematic for people with cognitive concerns such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Additionally, certain kinds of motion can be a trigger for Vestibular disorders, epilepsy, and migraine, and Scotopic sensitivity.

Consider providing a mechanism for pausing or disabling animation, as well as using the Reduced Motion Media Query (or equivalent user agent client hint Sec-CH-Prefers-Reduced-Motion) to create a complimentary experience for users who have expressed a preference for no animated experiences.

Specifications

Specification
Web Animations # the-animation-interface

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Jun 28, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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