WebAssembly.Memory

The WebAssembly.Memory object is a resizable ArrayBuffer or SharedArrayBuffer that holds the raw bytes of memory accessed by a WebAssembly Instance.

A memory created by JavaScript or in WebAssembly code will be accessible and mutable from both JavaScript and WebAssembly.

Constructor

WebAssembly.Memory()
Creates a new Memory object.

Instance properties

Memory.prototype.buffer
An accessor property that returns the buffer contained in the memory.

Instance methods

Memory.prototype.grow()
Increases the size of the memory instance by a specified number of WebAssembly pages (each one is 64KB in size).

Examples

Creating a new Memory object

There are two ways to get a WebAssembly.Memory object. The first way is to construct it from JavaScript. The following example creates a new WebAssembly Memory instance with an initial size of 10 pages (640KiB), and a maximum size of 100 pages (6.4MiB). Its buffer property will return an ArrayBuffer.

var memory = new WebAssembly.Memory({initial:10, maximum:100});

The second way to get a WebAssembly.Memory object is to have it exported by a WebAssembly module. The following example (see memory.html on GitHub, and view it live also) fetches and instantiates the loaded memory.wasm byte code using the WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming() method, while importing the memory created in the line above. It then stores some values in that memory, then exports a function and uses it to sum some values.

WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming(fetch('memory.wasm'), { js: { mem: memory } })
.then(obj => {
  var i32 = new Uint32Array(memory.buffer);
  for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    i32[i] = i;
  }
  var sum = obj.instance.exports.accumulate(0, 10);
  console.log(sum);
});

Creating a shared memory

By default, WebAssembly memories are unshared. You can create a shared memory by passing shared: true in the constructor's initialization object:

let memory = new WebAssembly.Memory({initial:10, maximum:100, shared: true});

This memory's buffer property will return a SharedArrayBuffer.

Specifications

Specification
WebAssembly JavaScript Interface
The definition of 'Memory' in that specification.

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobileServer
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung InternetNode.js
MemoryChrome Full support 57Edge Full support 16Firefox Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
IE No support NoOpera Full support 44Safari Full support 11WebView Android Full support 57Chrome Android Full support 57Firefox Android Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
Opera Android Full support 43Safari iOS Full support 11Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0nodejs Full support 8.0.0
Memory() constructorChrome Full support 57Edge Full support 16Firefox Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
IE No support NoOpera Full support 44Safari Full support 11WebView Android Full support 57Chrome Android Full support 57Firefox Android Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
Opera Android Full support 43Safari iOS Full support 11Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0nodejs Full support 8.0.0
bufferChrome Full support 57Edge Full support 16Firefox Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
IE No support NoOpera Full support 44Safari Full support 11WebView Android Full support 57Chrome Android Full support 57Firefox Android Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
Opera Android Full support 43Safari iOS Full support 11Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0nodejs Full support 8.0.0
growChrome Full support 57Edge Full support 16Firefox Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
IE No support NoOpera Full support 44Safari Full support 11WebView Android Full support 57Chrome Android Full support 57Firefox Android Full support 52
Notes
Full support 52
Notes
Notes Disabled in the Firefox 52 Extended Support Release (ESR).
Opera Android Full support 43Safari iOS Full support 11Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0nodejs Full support 8.0.0

Legend

Full support
Full support
No support
No support
See implementation notes.
See implementation notes.

See also