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Glossary · Web, apps and product

WebGPU

WebGPU is the API a web page uses to reach the device’s graphics card for 3D drawing and heavy computation. It is the successor to WebGL.

WebGPU: the details

WebGL arrived in 2011 on top of a graphics model from the 1990s. WebGPU was designed on each platform’s modern APIs—Direct3D 12, Metal and Vulkan—which cuts the processor work per drawn object and allows more complex scenes. It also adds compute shaders: programs that use the graphics card for calculations other than drawing, such as simulations or machine learning models in the browser.

It has been available in Chrome and Edge since 2023, in Safari since version 26 and in Firefox since 2025, with support that still varies by operating system. So in a real project the prudent approach is to use WebGPU where it exists and keep WebGL as a fallback. Libraries such as Three.js already make that possible.

WebGPU in a project

For 3D websites and configurators we choose the engine based on the client’s real audience. If a meaningful share browses on devices without WebGPU, the scene is built to look right in WebGL too.

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