t - Web APIs | MDN

• Skip to main content
• Skip to search

HTMLImageElement: alt property Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

• Learn more
• See full compatibility
• Report feedback

The alt property of the HTMLImageElement interface provides fallback (alternate) text to display when the image specified by the <img> element is not displayed, whether because of an error, because the user has disabled the loading of images, or because the image hasn't finished loading yet. It reflects the <img> element's alt content attribute.

There are important accessibility implications of providing appropriate alt text, and the requirements may differ based on the purpose of the image. See the HTML <img> reference for more information.

In this article

• Value
• Examples
• Specifications
• Browser compatibility

Value

A string.

Examples

Setting the alt attribute

jsconst img = new Image(); img.src = "example.png"; img.alt = "An example picture";

Specifications

Specification
HTML# dom-img-alt

Browser compatibility

Help improve MDN

Was this page helpful to you? Yes No Learn how to contribute

This page was last modified on ⁨Nov 7, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content Filter sidebar

1. The HTML DOM API
2. HTMLImageElement
3. Constructor
   1. Image()
4. Instance properties
   1. align Deprecated
   2. alt
   3. attributionSrc Deprecated
   4. border Deprecated
   5. complete
   6. crossOrigin
   7. currentSrc
   8. decoding
   9. fetchPriority
   10. height
   11. hspace Deprecated
   12. isMap
   13. loading
   14. longDesc Deprecated
   15. name Deprecated
   16. naturalHeight
   17. naturalWidth
   18. referrerPolicy
   19. sizes
   20. src
   21. srcset
   22. useMap
   23. vspace Deprecated
   24. width
   25. x
   26. y
5. Instance methods
   1. decode()
6. Inheritance
   1. HTMLElement
   2. Element
   3. Node
   4. EventTarget
7. Related pages for HTML DOM
   1. BeforeUnloadEvent
   2. DOMStringMap
   3. ErrorEvent
   4. HTMLAnchorElement
   5. HTMLAreaElement
   6. HTMLAudioElement
   7. HTMLBRElement
   8. HTMLBaseElement
   9. HTMLBodyElement
   10. HTMLButtonElement
   11. HTMLCanvasElement
   12. HTMLDListElement
   13. HTMLDataElement
   14. HTMLDataListElement
   15. HTMLDialogElement
   16. HTMLDivElement
   17. HTMLDocument
   18. HTMLElement
   19. HTMLEmbedElement
   20. HTMLFieldSetElement
   21. HTMLFormControlsCollection
   22. HTMLFormElement
   23. HTMLFrameSetElement Deprecated
   24. HTMLHRElement
   25. HTMLHeadElement
   26. HTMLHeadingElement
   27. HTMLHtmlElement
   28. HTMLIFrameElement
   29. HTMLInputElement
   30. HTMLLIElement
   31. HTMLLabelElement
   32. HTMLLegendElement
   33. HTMLLinkElement
   34. HTMLMapElement
   35. HTMLMediaElement
   36. HTMLMenuElement
   37. HTMLMetaElement
   38. HTMLMeterElement
   39. HTMLModElement
   40. HTMLOListElement
   41. HTMLObjectElement
   42. HTMLOptGroupElement
   43. HTMLOptionElement
   44. HTMLOptionsCollection
   45. HTMLOutputElement
   46. HTMLParagraphElement
   47. HTMLPictureElement
   48. HTMLPreElement
   49. HTMLProgressElement
   50. HTMLQuoteElement
   51. HTMLScriptElement
   52. HTMLSelectElement
   53. HTMLSourceElement
   54. HTMLSpanElement
   55. HTMLStyleElement
   56. HTMLTableCaptionElement
   57. HTMLTableCellElement
   58. HTMLTableColElement
   59. HTMLTableElement
   60. HTMLTableRowElement
   61. HTMLTableSectionElement
   62. HTMLTemplateElement
   63. HTMLTextAreaElement
   64. HTMLTimeElement
   65. HTMLTitleElement
   66. HTMLTrackElement
   67. HTMLUListElement
   68. HTMLUnknownElement
   69. HTMLVideoElement
   70. HashChangeEvent
   71. History
   72. ImageData
   73. Location
   74. MessageChannel
   75. MessageEvent
   76. MessagePort
   77. Navigator
   78. PageRevealEvent
   79. PageSwapEvent
   80. PageTransitionEvent
   81. Plugin Deprecated
   82. PluginArray Deprecated
   83. PromiseRejectionEvent
   84. RadioNodeList
   85. TimeRanges
   86. UserActivation
   87. ValidityState
   88. Window
   89. WorkletGlobalScope
8. Guides
   1. Using microtasks in JavaScript with queueMicrotask()
   2. In depth: Microtasks and the JavaScript runtime environment