BaseAudioContext.currentTime

The currentTime read-only property of the BaseAudioContext interface returns a double representing an ever-increasing hardware timestamp in seconds that can be used for scheduling audio playback, visualizing timelines, etc. It starts at 0.

Syntax

var curTime = baseAudioContext.currentTime;

Example

var AudioContext = window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext;
var audioCtx = new AudioContext();
// Older webkit/blink browsers require a prefix

...

console.log(audioCtx.currentTime);

Reduced time precision

To offer protection against timing attacks and fingerprinting, the precision of audioCtx.currentTime might get rounded depending on browser settings.
In Firefox, the privacy.reduceTimerPrecision preference is enabled by default and defaults to 20us in Firefox 59; in 60 it will be 2ms.

// reduced time precision (2ms) in Firefox 60
audioCtx.currentTime;
// 23.404
// 24.192
// 25.514
// ...


// reduced time precision with `privacy.resistFingerprinting` enabled
audioCtx.currentTime;
// 49.8
// 50.6
// 51.7
// ...

In Firefox, you can also enabled privacy.resistFingerprinting, the precision will be 100ms or the value of privacy.resistFingerprinting.reduceTimerPrecision.microseconds, whichever is larger.

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

See also:

• Using Web Audio API