height

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.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The height CSS property specifies the height of an element. By default, the property defines the height of the content area. If box-sizing is set to border-box, however, it instead determines the height of the border area.

Try it

height: 150px;

height: 6em;

height: 75%;

height: auto;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    This is a box where you can change the height.
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  background-color: #5b6dcd;
  justify-content: center;
  color: #ffffff;
}

The min-height and max-height properties override height.

Note: As a geometric property, height also applies to the <svg>, <rect>, <image>, and <foreignObject> SVG elements, with auto resolving to 0 and percent values being relative to the SVG viewport height for <rect>. The CSS height property value overrides any SVG height attribute value set on the SVG element.

Syntax

css
/* <length> values */
height: 120px;
height: 10em;
height: 100vh;
height: anchor-size(height);
height: anchor-size(--myAnchor self-block, 250px);
height: clamp(200px, anchor-size(width));

/* <percentage> value */
height: 75%;

/* Keyword values */
height: max-content;
height: min-content;
height: fit-content;
height: fit-content(20em);
height: auto;
height: stretch;

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

Values

<length>

Defines the height as a distance value.

<percentage>

Defines the height as a percentage of the containing block's height.

auto

The browser will calculate and select a height for the specified element.

max-content

The intrinsic preferred height.

min-content

The intrinsic minimum height.

fit-content

Use the available space, but not more than max-content, i.e., min(max-content, max(min-content, stretch)).

fit-content(<length-percentage>)

Uses the fit-content formula with the available space replaced by the specified argument, i.e., min(max-content, max(min-content, <length-percentage>)).

stretch

Sets the height of the element's margin box to the height of its containing block. It attempts to make the margin box fill the available space in the containing block, so in a way behaving similar to 100% but applying the resulting size to the margin box rather than the box determined by box-sizing.

Accessibility

Ensure that elements set with a height aren't truncated and/or don't obscure other content when the page is zoomed to increase text size.

Formal definition

Initial valueauto
Applies toall elements but non-replaced inline elements, table columns, and column groups
Inheritedno
PercentagesThe percentage is calculated with respect to the height of the generated box's containing block. If the height of the containing block is not specified explicitly (i.e., it depends on content height), and this element is not absolutely positioned, the value computes to auto. A percentage height on the root element is relative to the initial containing block.
Computed valuea percentage or auto or the absolute length
Animation typea length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

height = 
  auto                                      |
  <length-percentage [0,∞]>                 |
  min-content                               |
  max-content                               |
  fit-content( <length-percentage [0,∞]> )  |
  <calc-size()>                             |
  <anchor-size()>                           

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>  

<calc-size()> = 
  calc-size( <calc-size-basis> , <calc-sum> )  

<anchor-size()> = 
  anchor-size( [ <anchor-name> || <anchor-size> ]? , <length-percentage>? )  

<calc-size-basis> = 
  <size-keyword>  |
  <calc-size()>   |
  any             |
  <calc-sum>      

<calc-sum> = 
  <calc-product> [ [ '+' | '-' ] <calc-product> ]*  

<anchor-name> = 
  <dashed-ident>  

<anchor-size> = 
  width        |
  height       |
  block        |
  inline       |
  self-block   |
  self-inline  

<calc-product> = 
  <calc-value> [ [ '*' | / ] <calc-value> ]*  

<calc-value> = 
  <number>        |
  <dimension>     |
  <percentage>    |
  <calc-keyword>  |
  ( <calc-sum> )  

<calc-keyword> = 
  e          |
  pi         |
  infinity   |
  -infinity  |
  NaN

Examples

Setting height using pixels and percentages

HTML

html
<div id="taller">I'm 50 pixels tall.</div>
<div id="shorter">I'm 25 pixels tall.</div>
<div id="parent">
  <div id="child">I'm half the height of my parent.</div>
</div>

CSS

css
div {
  width: 250px;
  margin-bottom: 5px;
  border: 2px solid blue;
}

#taller {
  height: 50px;
}

#shorter {
  height: 25px;
}

#parent {
  height: 100px;
}

#child {
  height: 50%;
  width: 75%;
}

Result

Stretch height to fill the containing block

HTML

html
<div class="parent">
  <div class="child">text</div>
</div>

<div class="parent">
  <div class="child stretch">stretch</div>
</div>

CSS

css
.parent {
  height: 150px;
  margin: 1rem;
  border: solid;
}

.child {
  margin: 1rem;
  background: #0999;
}

.stretch {
  height: stretch;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 3
# preferred-size-properties
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4
# sizing-values

Browser compatibility

See also