HTML ratechange DOM Event: Reference and Examples

When someone interacts with a webpage, the browser sends events to the relevant JavaScript code. The ratechange event happens when media playback speed changes.

When ratechange happens

Media playback speed changes.

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

<video id="demo-target" controls preload="metadata" width="320">
    <source src="sample-video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
<p id="event-status" role="status">Waiting for ratechange...</p>
<script>
    const eventTarget = document.getElementById("demo-target");
    const eventStatus = document.getElementById("event-status");

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

Reading the code

The browser listens for ratechange 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.

Adjust video.playbackRate with a button or script.

To test this example, put a real supported media file at the shown path. Events tied to buffering or download behavior may not fire in the same order on every connection. An unavailable sample file is not proof that your event listener is broken.

Try it in your browser

Open the page, show the Console panel, and follow this test: Adjust video.playbackRate with a button or script. Then change one thing in the example and observe whether the event still fires.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Expecting ratechange to fire without its required user action or browser condition.
• Adjust video.playbackRate with a button or script.
• Adding repeated event listeners without considering cleanup or unwanted side effects.

Key Takeaways

• ratechange reports media playback speed changes.
• addEventListener("ratechange", ...) listens for the event on the appropriate target.
• Adjust video.playbackRate with a button or script.