HTMLElement.innerText

A property representing the text within a DOM element and its descendants. As a getter, it approximates the text the user would get if they highlighted the contents of the element with the cursor and then copied to the clipboard.

Spec	https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#the-innertext-idl-attribute
Status	WHATWG Living Standard

IE	Edge	Firefox	Chrome	Safari	Opera
			98
		95	97
		94	96	TP
11	95	93	95	15	80
10	94	92	94	14.1	79
9	93	91	93	14	78
8	92	90	92	13.1	77
Show all
7	91	89	91	13	76
6	90	88	90	12.1	75
5.5	89	87	89	12	74
	88	86	88	11.1	73
	87	85	87	11	72
	86	84	86	10.1	71
	85	83	85	10	70
	84	82	84	9.1	69
	83	81	83	9	68
	81	80	81	8	67
	80	79	80	7.1	66
	79	78	79	7	65
	18	77	78	6.1	64
	17	76	77	6	63
	16	75	76	5.1	62
	15	74	75	5	60
	14	73	74	4	58
	13	72	73	3.2	57
	12	71	72	3.1	56
		70	71		55
		69	70		54
		68	69		53
		67	68		52
		66	67		51
		65	66		50
		64	65		49
		63	64		48
		62	63		47
		61	62		46
		60	61		45
		59	60		44
		58	59		43
		57	58		42
		56	57		41
		55	56		40
		54	55		39
		53	54		38
		52	53		37
		51	52		36
		50	51		35
		49	50		34
		48	49		33
		47	48		32
		46	47		31
		45	46		30
		44	45		29
		43	44		28
		42	43		27
		41	42		26
		40	41		25
		39	40		24
		38	39		23
		37	38		22
		36	37		21
		35	36		20
		34	35		19
		33	34		18
		32	33		17
		31	32		16
		30	31		15
		29	30		12.1
		28	29		12
		27	28		11.6
		26	27		11.5
		25	26		11.1
		24	25		11
		23	24		10.6
		22	23		10.5
		21	22		10.0-10.1
		20	21		9.5-9.6
		19	20		9
		18	19
		17	18
		16	17
		15	16
		14	15
		13	14
		12	13
		11	12
		10	11
		9	10
		8	9
		7	8
		6	7
		5	6
		4	5
		3.6	4
		3.5
		3
		2

Safari on iOS	Opera Mini	Android Browser	Blackberry Browser	Opera Mobile	Android Chrome	Android Firefox	IE Mobile	Android UC Browser	Samsung Internet	QQ Browser	Baidu Browser	KaiOS Browser
15	all	94	10	64	94	92	11	12.12	15.0	10.4	7.12	2.5
14.5-14.8		4.4.3-4.4.4	7	12.1			10		14.0
14.0-14.4		4.4		12					13.0
13.4-13.7		4.2-4.3		11.5					12.0
Show all
13.3		4.1		11.1					11.1-11.2
13.2		4		11					10.1
13.0-13.1		3		10					9.2
12.2-12.5		2.3							8.2
12.0-12.1		2.2							7.2-7.4
11.3-11.4		2.1							6.2-6.4
11.0-11.2									5.0-5.4
10.3									4
10.0-10.2
9.3
9.0-9.2
8.1-8.4
8
7.0-7.1
6.0-6.1
5.0-5.1
4.2-4.3
4.0-4.1
3.2

Notes

This test only checks that the property exists and works correctly in a very simple case.
This blog post by kangax explains the history of this property, gives much more detailed cross-browser compatibility information, and gives a detailed strawman specification for the property.
HTMLElement.innerText is similar to, but has some important differences from, the standard Node.textContent property.

Bugs

• In IE10 and IE11, when using innerText (and also innerHTML or outerHTML) on a textarea which has a placeholder attribute, the returned HTML/text also uses the placeholder's value as the actual textarea's value. See bug.

Resources

• MDN Web Docs - innerText
• WHATWG Compatibility Standard issue #5: spec innerText
• Rangy, a JS range and selection library which contains an innerText implementation
• Standardizing innerText – Web Incubator Community Group (WICG) discussion