files/en-us/web/api/element/paste_event/index.md
{{APIRef("Clipboard API")}}
The paste event of the Clipboard API is fired when the user has initiated a "paste" action through the browser's user interface.
If the cursor is in an editable context (for example, in a {{HTMLElement("textarea")}} or an element with contenteditable attribute set to true) then the default action is to insert the contents of the clipboard into the document at the cursor position.
A handler for this event can access the clipboard contents by calling {{domxref("DataTransfer/getData", "getData()")}} on the event's clipboardData property.
To override the default behavior (for example to insert some different data or a transformation of the clipboard contents) an event handler must cancel the default action using {{domxref("Event/preventDefault", "event.preventDefault()")}}, and then insert its desired data manually.
It's possible to construct and dispatch a synthetic paste event, but this will not affect the document's contents.
This event bubbles up the DOM tree, eventually to {{domxref("Document")}} and {{domxref("Window")}}, is cancelable and is composed.
Use the event name in methods like {{domxref("EventTarget.addEventListener", "addEventListener()")}}, or set an event handler property.
addEventListener("paste", (event) => { })
onpaste = (event) => { }
A {{domxref("ClipboardEvent")}}. Inherits from {{domxref("Event")}}.
{{InheritanceDiagram("ClipboardEvent")}}
<div class="source" contenteditable="true">Copy text from this box.</div>
<div class="target" contenteditable="true">And paste it into this one.</div>
div.source,
div.target {
border: 1px solid gray;
margin: 0.5rem;
padding: 0.5rem;
height: 1rem;
background-color: #e9eef1;
}
const target = document.querySelector("div.target");
target.addEventListener("paste", (event) => {
event.preventDefault();
let paste = (event.clipboardData || window.clipboardData).getData("text");
paste = paste.toUpperCase();
const selection = window.getSelection();
if (!selection.rangeCount) return;
selection.deleteFromDocument();
selection.getRangeAt(0).insertNode(document.createTextNode(paste));
selection.collapseToEnd();
});
{{ EmbedLiveSample('Live_example', '100%', '120px') }}
{{Specifications}}
{{Compat}}