WebAssembly

WebAssembly, abbreviated as Wasm, is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine, designed as a portable compilation target for programming languages enabling deployment on the web for both client and server applications. The open standards for the technology are developed in a W3C Community Group that includes representatives from all major browser vendors including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Edge, as well as a formal W3C Working Group responsible for the official specification. WebAssembly is engineered to be efficient and fast, with a stack machine architecture encoded in a size- and load-time-efficient binary format that aims to execute at native speed by taking advantage of common hardware capabilities available on a wide range of platforms. The execution environment is memory-safe and sandboxed, implemented inside existing JavaScript virtual machines, and enforces the same-origin and permissions security policies of the browser when embedded in web content. WebAssembly is designed to be open and debuggable, pretty-printable in a textual format for debugging, and part of the open web platform. Languages compiling to the target include C, C++, Rust, Go, AssemblyScript, and Zig, with toolchains such as Emscripten, Binaryen, and LLVM providing the compilation infrastructure. Developer reference documentation is maintained on MDN Web Docs, and feature status tracking covers proposals like garbage collection, reference types, exception handling, SIMD instructions, threads, tail calls, and the component model. The technology powers applications including Figma, Photoshop on the web, Google Earth, AutoCAD web, and high-performance games. Copyright 2017-2026 WebAssembly Community Group, W3C.