HTMLCanvasElement: transferControlToOffscreen() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2023.

The HTMLCanvasElement.transferControlToOffscreen() method transfers control to an OffscreenCanvas object, either on the main thread or on a worker.

Syntax

transferControlToOffscreen()

Parameters

None.

Return value

An OffscreenCanvas object.

Exceptions

InvalidStateError DOMException

Throws if:

the canvas has been set a context mode by calling HTMLCanvasElement.getContext()
the canvas has already transferred its control to offscreen.

Examples

The following example shows how to transfer control to an OffscreenCanvas object on the main thread.

const htmlCanvas = document.createElement("canvas");
const offscreen = htmlCanvas.transferControlToOffscreen();
const gl = offscreen.getContext("webgl");

// Some drawing using the gl context…

The following example shows how to transfer control to an OffscreenCanvas object on a worker.

const offscreen = document.querySelector("canvas").transferControlToOffscreen();
const worker = new Worker("my-worker-url.js");
worker.postMessage({ canvas: offscreen }, [offscreen]);

Specifications

Specification
HTML # dom-canvas-transfercontroltooffscreen-dev

Browser compatibility

Help improve MDN

Learn how to contribute

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

View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content