Technology
How does a web browser work?
A web browser turns code into the pages you see. It requests a site's files from a server, then reads the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build and display the page — handling layout, styling, and interactivity all in a fraction of a second.
See it in motion.
Watch a 2-minute animated lesson that shows exactly how a web browser works.
Step by step
- 1It requests a website's files from a server.
- 2It reads HTML for structure and CSS for styling.
- 3It runs JavaScript for interactivity.
- 4It renders all of this into the page you see.
Frequently asked questions
- How does a web browser work?
- It fetches a site's files and interprets the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to render the page you see.
- What is a rendering engine?
- The part of a browser that turns code into the visual layout on screen, like Chrome's Blink.
- Why do pages look the same across browsers?
- Browsers follow shared web standards, though small differences in rendering can still occur.