When your compute shader blazes past your best JavaScript in the browser, it's not just fast-it's exhilarating. Like you've bent the rules of physics and gotten away with it. That's the magic of WebGPU. It's not just another graphics API-it's the long-overdue upgrade that finally lets the web punch at native weight. After years of wrestling with WebGL's quirks and bottlenecks, we can say it loud: this changes everything.
This book was written for developers who want more than specs and surface-level tutorials. The official docs tell you what WebGPU does. We're here to show you how to build with it. This is the guide we wish we'd had:
A default-first mindset-WebGPU isn't niche anymore, it's the new normal
Equal love for compute and graphics-because modern apps need both, working in sync
A mix of examples you can actually use-not just academic theory
No fluff-just the stuff that matters when you're building for real users
This isn't just about learning WebGPU-it's about rewiring how you think about performance, architecture, and the GPU as a first-class citizen in your stack. You'll learn:
How to make CPU-GPU handoffs buttery smooth
When to reach for compute vs. vertex shaders-and how to know the difference
Debugging tricks that saved us weeks of pain
Optimization patterns that work across browsers, not just in ideal conditions
We've packed this with hard-earned lessons from building actual WebGPU-powered apps-the kind people rely on every day. The code is battle-tested, the diagrams are human-readable, and the advice is brutally practical.
One warning: WebGPU will ruin you for other APIs. Once you've seen 100x speedups on parallel workloads, you'll start spotting GPU-shaped holes in everything you build. Consider yourself warned.