JavaScript Versions

JavaScript Versions

JavaScript was invented by Brendan Eich in 1995 and became an ECMA standard in 1997.

ECMAScript is the official name of the language.

Starting from 2015, ECMAScript is named annually (ECMAScript 2015).

ECMAScript Version

Version Official Name Description
1 ECMAScript 1 (1997) First edition.
2 ECMAScript 2 (1998) Only changed editing mode.
3 ECMAScript 3 (1999)
  • Added regular expressions.
  • Added try/catch.
4 ECMAScript 4 Never released.
5

ECMAScript 5 (2009)

Read more: JS ES5
  • Added 'strict mode'.
  • Added JSON support.
  • Added String.trim().
  • Added Array.isArray().
  • Added array iteration methods.
5.1 ECMAScript 5.1 (2011) Edit changes.
6

ECMAScript 2015

Read more: JS ES6
  • Added let and const
  • Added default parameter values
  • Added Array.find().
  • Added Array.findIndex().
7 ECMAScript 2016
  • Added exponentiation operator (**).
  • Added Array.prototype.includes.
8 ECMAScript 2017
  • Added string padding.
  • Added new Object properties.
  • Added asynchronous features.
  • Added shared memory.
9 ECMAScript 2018
  • Added rest / spread properties.
  • Added asynchronous iteration.
  • Added Promise.finally().
  • Added RegExp.

ECMAScript is usually abbreviated as ES.

Browser Support

All browsers fully support ECMAScript 3.

All modern browsers fully support ECMAScript 5.

Browser support for ES5 (2009)

Browser Version Start Date
Chrome 23 September 2012
Firefox 21 April 2013
IE 9* March 2011
IE / Edge 10 September 2012
Safari 6 July 2012
Opera 15 July 2013

* Internet Explorer 9 does not support ECMAScript 5 'use strict'.

Browser support for ES6 (ECMAScript 2015)

Browser Version Date
Chrome 58 April 2017
Firefox 54 June 2017
Edge 14 August 2016
Safari 10 September 2016
Opera 55 August 2017

Internet Explorer does not support ECMAScript 2015.

Browser support for ES7 (ECMAScript 2016)

Browser Version Date
Chrome 68 May 2018
Opera 47 July 2018

JavaScript / ECMAScript

JavaScript It was developed for Netscape. Netscape 2 was the first browser to run JavaScript.

After Netscape, the Mozilla Foundation continued to develop JavaScript for the Firefox browser.

The latest JavaScript version is 1.8.5. (Same as ECMAScript 5).

ECMAScript Developed by ECMA International after the organization adopted JavaScript.

The first version of ECMAScript was released in 1997.

This list compares the version numbers of different products:

Year JavaScript ECMA Browser
1996 1.0 Netscape 2
1997 ECMAScript 1 IE 4
1998 1.3 Netscape 4
1999 ECMAScript 2 IE 5
2000 ECMAScript 3 IE 5.5
2000 1.5 Netscape 6
2000 1.5 Firefox 1
2011 ECMAScript 5 IE 9 (except for 'use strict')
2011 1.8.5 Firefox 4 (except for leading zeros in parseInt)
2012 IE 10
2012 Chrome 23
2012 Safari 6
2013 Firefox 21
2013 Opera 15
2015 ECMAScript 2015 Partially supported in all browsers

IE 4 is the first browser to support ECMAScript 1 (1997).

IE 5 is the first browser to support ECMAScript 2 (1999).

IE 5.5 is the first browser to support ECMAScript 3 (2000).

IE 9 * is the first browser to support ECMAScript 5 (2011).

Internet Explorer 9 does not support ECMAScript 5 'use strict'.

Chrome 23, IE 10, and Safari 6 were the first batchCompleteBrowsers Supporting ECMAScript 5:

Chrome 23 IE10 / Edge Firefox 21 Safari 6 Opera 15
September 2012 September 2012 April 2013 July 2012 July 2013