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This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The pause event is sent when a request to pause an activity is handled and the activity has entered its paused state, most commonly after the media has been paused through a call to the element's pause() method.
The event is sent once the pause() method returns and after the media element's paused property has been changed to true.
This event is not cancelable and does not bubble.
Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.
A generic Event.
These examples add an event listener for the HTMLMediaElement's pause event, then post a message when that event handler has reacted to the event firing.
Using addEventListener():
Using the onpause event handler property:
| HTML # event-media-pause |
| HTML # handler-onpause |
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This page was last modified on May 2, 2025 by MDN contributors.
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