At the time of writing, WebGPU is well supported on Windows and Mac, but Linux support is still in development. For the current status of WebGPU support in various browsers and platforms, see the WebGPU implementation status. This guide helps you set up WebGPU on your machine.

Windows

On Windows, WebGPU is available by default in the most recent versions of:

  • Google Chrome

  • Microsoft Edge

  • Mozilla Firefox

MacOS

On macOS, WebGPU is available by default in the most recent versions of:

  • Safari — requires at least macOS Tahoe

  • Google Chrome

  • Mozilla Firefox

On macOS versions older than macOS Tahoe, you must enable WebGPU in Firefox manually by going to about:config and setting gfx.webgpu.ignore-blocklist to true.

Linux

WebGPU support on Linux is still in an experimental state and requires some manual setup on both Chrome and Firefox.

Google Chrome on Linux

To enable WebGPU in Google Chrome on Linux, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure that you have the latest version of Google Chrome installed. WebGPU is under active development, so using the latest version ensures that you have the most recent features and bug fixes.

  2. Open Chrome, navigate to chrome://flags/ and set the "Vulkan" feature flag to "Enabled".

    You can also enable WebGPU by launching Chrome with the command-line flag.

    google-chrome --use-vulkan

    If you run into issues with WebGPU on X11, try using Wayland, because WebGPU support in Chrome on Linux is better on Wayland. To check what you’re using, use the following command: 

    echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

    If the output is wayland, you’re good to go. If it’s x11, you need to log out and log back in using a Wayland session.

  3. Restart Chrome to apply the changes.

    If Chrome won’t launch, try launching it with --ozone-platform=x11. When running Wayland, the "ozone platform" will default to wayland, but Vulkan can’t be enabled then, so it needs to be forced back into x11 mode. 

    google-chrome --ozone-platform=x11

Mozilla Firefox on Linux

WebGPU support in Firefox on Linux is still under development: it’s only enabled by default in Nightly builds. In release versions of Firefox, you can enable it manually:

  1. Navigate to about:config.

  2. Search for the dom.webgpu.enabled property and set it to true.

  3. Restart the browser.

How to check if WebGPU is working

The easiest way to verify that everything is set up correctly is to visit the WebGPU report. This page provides information about your browser’s WebGPU support and the underlying adapter capabilities. If WebGPU is supported, the page shows several tables detailing your GPU adapter information, supported device limits, and available features. These tables help you understand the specifics of your hardware’s WebGPU capabilities.

If the adapter is listed as "swiftshader", your browser is using a software renderer instead of your system’s GPU. Although a software renderer allows you to use WebGPU, performance will be significantly lower because everything is running on the CPU.

You can also check:

  • The LuciadRIA Device support sample, which gives you more information about the browser’s WebGPU support, in the context of LuciadRIA.

  • The official WebGPU samples page.

  • The address bar commands chrome://gpu in Chrome or about:support in Firefox. They provide detailed information about the graphics status of your browser.

Troubleshooting

If you run into issues with WebGPU, consider these troubleshooting steps: