Element: blur event

The blur event fires when an element has lost focus. The main difference between this event and focusout is that focusout bubbles while blur does not.

The opposite of blur is focus.

Bubbles No
Cancelable No
Interface FocusEvent
Event handler property onblur
Sync / Async Sync
Composed Yes

Examples

Simple example

HTML

<form id="form">
  <input type="text" placeholder="text input">
  <input type="password" placeholder="password">
</form>

JavaScript

const password = document.querySelector('input[type="password"]');

password.addEventListener('focus', (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = 'pink';
});

password.addEventListener('blur', (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = '';
});

Result

Event delegation

There are two ways of implementing event delegation for this event: by using the focusout event, or by setting the useCapture parameter of addEventListener() to true.

HTML

<form id="form">
  <input type="text" placeholder="text input">
  <input type="password" placeholder="password">
</form>

JavaScript

const form = document.getElementById('form');

form.addEventListener('focus', (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = 'pink';
}, true);

form.addEventListener('blur', (event) => {
  event.target.style.background = '';
}, true);

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
UI Events Working Draft Added info that this event is composed.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification Obsolete Initial definition

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
blur eventChrome Full support 1Edge Full support 12Firefox Full support 24
Full support 24
No support 6 — 24
Notes
Notes The interface for this event is Event, not FocusEvent.
IE Full support 9Opera Full support 11.6Safari Full support 3.1WebView Android Full support 1Chrome Android Full support 18Firefox Android Full support 24
Full support 24
No support 6 — 24
Notes
Notes The interface for this event is Event, not FocusEvent.
Opera Android Full support 12.1Safari iOS Full support 2Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support
Full support
See implementation notes.
See implementation notes.

The value of Document.activeElement varies across browsers while this event is being handled (bug 452307): IE10 sets it to the element that the focus will move to, while Firefox and Chrome often set it to the body of the document.

See also