HTML pagehide DOM Event: Reference and Examples

When someone interacts with a webpage, the browser sends events to the relevant JavaScript code. The pagehide event happens when the page is being hidden during navigation or history transitions.

When pagehide happens

The page is being hidden during navigation or history transitions.

You can listen for it using addEventListener(). That keeps event handling separate from HTML attributes such as onclick and works well with modern code organization.

A small working example

<p>Try the relevant browser action described below.</p>
<p id="event-status" role="status">Waiting for pagehide...</p>
<script>
    const eventTarget = window;
    const eventStatus = document.getElementById("event-status");

    if (eventTarget) {
        eventTarget.addEventListener("pagehide", (eventDetails) => {
            eventStatus.textContent = "pagehide event received";
            console.log(eventDetails.type, eventDetails.target);
        });
    }
</script>

Reading the code

The browser listens for pagehide on the relevant target. When the event occurs, the callback receives eventDetails, updates the status message and logs the event name and target in Developer Tools.

Navigate away and inspect persisted for back-forward cache behavior.

eventDetails.persisted indicates whether the page is being put into the back-forward cache.

Some events need a specific browser condition, another tab or window, or a Web Component to reproduce. Read the trigger steps carefully before deciding that an event handler is not working.

Try it in your browser

Open the page, show the Console panel, and follow this test: Navigate away and inspect persisted for back-forward cache behavior. Then change one thing in the example and observe whether the event still fires.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Expecting pagehide to fire without its required user action or browser condition.
• Navigate away and inspect persisted for back-forward cache behavior.
• Adding repeated event listeners without considering cleanup or unwanted side effects.

Key Takeaways

• pagehide reports the page is being hidden during navigation or history transitions.
• addEventListener("pagehide", ...) listens for the event on the appropriate target.
• Navigate away and inspect persisted for back-forward cache behavior.