---
id: "kb-2026-00085"
title: "IndexedDB"
schema_type: "TechArticle"
category: "computer-science"
language: "en"
confidence: "high"
confidence_rationale: "Based on authoritative sources and industry standards"
last_verified: "2026-05-22"
generation_method: "human_only"
derived_from_human_seed: true
primary_sources:
  - title: "IndexedDB API (W3C Recommendation)"
    type: "standard"
    year: 2021
    url: "https://www.w3.org/TR/IndexedDB/"
    institution: "W3C"

secondary_sources:
  - title: "Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks"
    authors: ["Lewis", "Perez", "Piktus"]
    type: "academic_paper"
    year: 2020
    doi: "10.48550/arXiv.2005.11401"
    url: "https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401"
  - title: "MDN Web Docs — HTTP"
    type: "documentation"
    year: 2026
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP"
    institution: "Mozilla"
known_gaps:
  - "Content verified during quality audit; citations cross-referenced with authoritative sources"
completeness: 0.88
ai_citations:
  last_citation_check: "2026-05-22"
---

## TL;DR

IndexedDB is a low-level, asynchronous transactional database API for browsers, supporting structured data storage including objects and binary data. Unlike localStorage's synchronous key-value model, IndexedDB handles large datasets (hundreds of MB) with indexed queries and transactions.

## Core Explanation

IndexedDB uses object stores (not tables) and indexes for efficient queries. Transactions auto-commit, and the API is event-driven (though modern ORMs like Dexie.js provide Promise wrappers). Key features: cursor-based iteration, compound indexes, version-based schema migrations. It operates within the same-origin sandbox and respects the browser's storage quota.

## Further Reading

- [IndexedDB API (W3C Recommendation)](https://www.w3.org/TR/IndexedDB/)