border-collapse

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The border-collapse CSS property sets whether cells inside a <table> have shared or separate borders.

Try it

border-collapse: collapse;

border-collapse: separate;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <table class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 1.1</td>
      <td>Cell 1.2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 2.1</td>
      <td>Cell 2.2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 3.1</td>
      <td>Cell 3.2</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</section>

table {
  width: 15rem;
  table-layout: fixed;
}

td {
  border: 5px solid;
  border-color: crimson dodgerblue orange limegreen;
  padding: 0.75rem;
}

When cells are collapsed, the border-style value of inset behaves like ridge, and outset behaves like groove.

When cells are separated, the distance between cells is defined by the border-spacing property.

Syntax

css

/* Keyword values */
border-collapse: collapse;
border-collapse: separate;

/* Global values */
border-collapse: inherit;
border-collapse: initial;
border-collapse: revert;
border-collapse: revert-layer;
border-collapse: unset;

The border-collapse property is specified as a single keyword, which may be chosen from the list below.

Values

collapse: Adjacent cells have shared borders (the collapsed-border table rendering model).
separate: Adjacent cells have distinct borders (the separated-border table rendering model).

Formal definition

Initial value	`separate`
Applies to	`table` and `inline-table` elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

border-collapse = 
  separate  |
  collapse

Examples

A colorful table of browser engines

HTML

html

<table class="separate">
  <caption>
    <code>border-collapse: separate</code>
  </caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th>Browser</th>
      <th>Layout Engine</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fx">Firefox</td>
      <td class="gk">Gecko</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="ed">Edge</td>
      <td class="tr">EdgeHTML</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="sa">Safari</td>
      <td class="wk">WebKit</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="ch">Chrome</td>
      <td class="bk">Blink</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="op">Opera</td>
      <td class="bk">Blink</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table class="collapse">
  <caption>
    <code>border-collapse: collapse</code>
  </caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th>Browser</th>
      <th>Layout Engine</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fx">Firefox</td>
      <td class="gk">Gecko</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="ed">Edge</td>
      <td class="tr">EdgeHTML</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="sa">Safari</td>
      <td class="wk">WebKit</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="ch">Chrome</td>
      <td class="bk">Blink</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="op">Opera</td>
      <td class="bk">Blink</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

css

.collapse {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}

.separate {
  border-collapse: separate;
}

table {
  display: inline-table;
  margin: 1em;
  border: dashed 5px;
}

table th,
table td {
  border: solid 3px;
}

.fx {
  border-color: orange blue;
}
.gk {
  border-color: black red;
}
.ed {
  border-color: blue gold;
}
.tr {
  border-color: aqua;
}
.sa {
  border-color: silver blue;
}
.wk {
  border-color: gold blue;
}
.ch {
  border-color: red yellow green blue;
}
.bk {
  border-color: navy blue teal aqua;
}
.op {
  border-color: red;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 # propdef-border-collapse

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Oct 30, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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