stop-color

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨April 2017⁩.

The stop-color CSS property defines the color to use for an SVG <stop> element within a gradient. If present, it overrides the element's stop-color attribute.

Note: The stop-color property only applies to <stop> elements nested in an <svg>. It doesn't apply to other SVG, HTML, or pseudo-elements.

Syntax

css

/* <color> values */
stop-color: red;
stop-color: hsl(120deg 75% 25% / 60%);
stop-color: currentColor;

/* Global values */
stop-color: inherit;
stop-color: initial;
stop-color: revert;
stop-color: revert-layer;
stop-color: unset;

Values

<color>: The color of the fill. This can be any valid CSS <color> value.

Formal definition

Initial value	`black`
Applies to	`<stop>` elements in `<svg>`
Inherited	no
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

stop-color = 
  <color>

Examples

Defining the color stops of SVG gradients

This example demonstrates the basic use case of stop-color, and how the CSS stop-color property takes precedence over the stop-color attribute.

HTML

We have an SVG with three <rect> squares and three <linearGradient> elements. Each gradient has four <stop> elements creating gradients that go from black to white and then white to grey; the only difference between them is the id value.

html

<svg viewBox="0 0 264 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <defs>
    <linearGradient id="myGradient1">
      <stop offset="25%" stop-color="black" />
      <stop offset="40%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="60%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="75%" stop-color="#333333" />
    </linearGradient>
    <linearGradient id="myGradient2">
      <stop offset="25%" stop-color="black" />
      <stop offset="40%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="60%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="75%" stop-color="#333333" />
    </linearGradient>
    <linearGradient id="myGradient3">
      <stop offset="25%" stop-color="black" />
      <stop offset="40%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="60%" stop-color="white" />
      <stop offset="75%" stop-color="#333333" />
    </linearGradient>
  </defs>
  <rect x="2" y="10" width="80" height="80" fill="url('#myGradient1')" />
  <rect x="92" y="10" width="80" height="80" fill="url('#myGradient2')" />
  <rect x="182" y="10" width="80" height="80" fill="url('#myGradient3')" />
</svg>

CSS

We include a stroke and stroke-width outlining the rectangle. We define the colors of the first and last stops in each gradient, overriding their stop-color attribute values, using the stop-color property. Various CSS <color> syntaxes are shown.

svg {
  border: 1px solid;
  height: calc(100vh - 20px);
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

css

rect {
  stroke: #333333;
  stroke-width: 1px;
}

#myGradient1 {
  stop:first-of-type {
    stop-color: #66ccff;
  }
  stop:last-of-type {
    stop-color: #f4aab9;
  }
}
#myGradient2 {
  stop:first-of-type {
    stop-color: yellow;
  }
  stop:last-of-type {
    stop-color: purple;
  }
}
#myGradient3 {
  stop:first-of-type {
    stop-color: hsl(0deg 90% 50%);
  }
  stop:last-of-type {
    stop-color: hsl(20deg 60% 50%);
  }
}

Results

Specifications

Specification
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 # StopColorProperty

Browser compatibility

Help improve MDN

Learn how to contribute

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

View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content