HTML timeupdate DOM Event: Reference and Examples

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

When timeupdate happens

Media playback position changes periodically.

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 timeupdate...</p>
<script>
    const eventTarget = document.getElementById("demo-target");
    const eventStatus = document.getElementById("event-status");

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

Reading the code

The browser listens for timeupdate 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.

Play the file and inspect currentTime; it does not fire once per frame.

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: Play the file and inspect currentTime; it does not fire once per frame. Then change one thing in the example and observe whether the event still fires.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Expecting timeupdate to fire without its required user action or browser condition.
• Play the file and inspect currentTime; it does not fire once per frame.
• Adding repeated event listeners without considering cleanup or unwanted side effects.

Key Takeaways

• timeupdate reports media playback position changes periodically.
• addEventListener("timeupdate", ...) listens for the event on the appropriate target.
• Play the file and inspect currentTime; it does not fire once per frame.