<embed>: The Embed External Content element

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since January 2020.

The <embed>HTML element embeds external content at the specified point in the document. This content is provided by an external application or other source of interactive content such as a browser plug-in.

Try it

<embed type="video/mp4" src="/shared-assets/videos/flower.mp4" width="250" height="200" />

Note: This topic documents only the element that is defined as part of the HTML Living Standard. It does not address earlier, non-standardized implementation of the element.

Keep in mind that most modern browsers have deprecated and removed support for browser plug-ins, so relying upon <embed> is generally not wise if you want your site to be operable on the average user's browser.

Attributes

This element's attributes include the global attributes.

height: The displayed height of the resource, in CSS pixels. This must be an absolute value; percentages are not allowed.
src: The URL of the resource being embedded.
type: The MIME type to use to select the plug-in to instantiate.
width: The displayed width of the resource, in CSS pixels. This must be an absolute value; percentages are not allowed.

Usage notes

You can use the object-position property to adjust the positioning of the embedded object within the element's frame.

Note: The object-fit property has no effect on <embed> elements.

Accessibility

Use the title attribute on an embed element to label its content so that people navigating with assistive technology such as a screen reader can understand what it contains. The title's value should concisely describe the embedded content. Without a title, they may not be able to determine what its embedded content is. This context shift can be confusing and time-consuming, especially if the embed element contains interactive content like video or audio.

Examples

html

<embed type="video/quicktime" src="movie.mov" width="640" height="480" title="Title of my video" />

Technical summary

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content, embedded content, interactive content, palpable content.
Permitted content	None; it is a void element.
Tag omission	Must have a start tag and must not have an end tag.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts embedded content.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	`application`, `document`, `img`, `none`, `presentation`
DOM interface	`HTMLEmbedElement`

Specifications

Specification
HTML # the-embed-element