---
name: Popconfirm
slug: popconfirm
category: component
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A small confirmation bubble anchored to the control you just
  pressed, asking whether you meant it without opening a dialog over the page.
aliases:
  - name: inline confirmation
    source: community
  - name: confirm popover
    source: community
  - name: are you sure popover
    source: community
tags:
  - overlays
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - confirmation-dialog
  variantOf:
    - popover
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "Ant Design: Popconfirm"
    url: https://ant.design/components/popconfirm
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: confirming in place instead of in a dialog
---

The word comes from Ant Design, which named the component by squashing popover and
confirm together, and the name has since escaped into general use because nothing
else was short for it. A popconfirm is a [popover](/popover) with one job: it holds a
one line question and two answers, and it opens beside the control that raised it.

Anchoring is the whole argument for it. The question arrives next to the button you
just pressed, so the thing being confirmed is still on screen, still pointed at, and
still recognisable from the row it sits in. A
[confirmation dialog](/confirmation-dialog) has to name that context in words because
it has covered it up, and it has to be dismissed before you can look at anything
again. When the answer is obvious and the consequence is small (removing one row,
revoking one key), the bubble asks for a fraction of the attention and gets an answer
from the same pointer position.

It buys that lightness by giving up what a modal has: nothing is trapped, nothing is
inert, and a stray click anywhere else closes the question without answering it.
That is the right trade for reversible or small consequences and the wrong one for
irreversible ones. If losing the answer to a mis-click would be bad, or the
explanation runs past a line, or the confirmation should be typed out, use the
dialog.

Two details separate a working popconfirm from a [tooltip](/tooltip) with buttons in
it. It opens on click and never on hover, because a bubble that appears while passing
over a delete button is an accident waiting to be clicked through. And it holds real
focus rather than borrowing it, so the answer is reachable by keyboard, with Escape
mapped to the safe way out.