min-width

The min-width CSS property is used to set the minimum width of an element. It prevents the used value of the width property from becoming smaller than the value specified for min-width.

/* <length> value */
min-width: 3.5em;

/* <percentage> value */
min-width: 10%;

/* Keyword values */
min-width: max-content;
min-width: min-content;
min-width: fit-content;
min-width: fill-available;

/* Global values */
min-width: inherit;
min-width: initial;
min-width: unset;

The element width is set to the value of min-width whenever min-width is larger than max-width or whenever min-width is larger than width.

Syntax

Values

<length>

The minimum width, expressed as a <length>. Negative values make the declaration invalid.

<percentage>

The minimum width, expressed as a <percentage> of the containing block's width. Negative values make the declaration invalid.

auto

The default minimum size for flex items, providing a more reasonable default than 0 for other layouts.

max-content

The intrinsic preferred width.

min-content

The intrinsic minimum width.

fill-available

The containing block's width minus horizontal margin, border, and padding. Some browsers implement an ancient name for this keyword, available.

fit-content

Defined as min(max-content, max(min-content, fill-available).

Formal syntax

<length> | <percentage> | auto | max-content | min-content | fit-content | fill-available

Examples

table { min-width: 75%; }

form { min-width: 0; }

Specifications

Browser compatibility

[1] CSS 2.1 explicitly leaves the behavior of min-width with <table> undefined. Therefore any behavior is CSS2.1-compliant; newer CSS specifications may define this behavior, so Web developers shouldn't rely on a specific one now.

[2] Gecko experimentally implements the definitions given in CSS3 Basic Box. This one defines available and not fill-available. Also the definition of fit-content is simpler than in CSS3 Intrinsic.

[3] WebKit also implements an earlier proposal, the keyword intrinsic.

[4] These implementations where implementing a slightly simpler behavior for this keyword: it computed to min-content on flex items, and it computes to 0 on everything else.

[5] In some browsers, on iOS, a <button> element in its native (default) configuration will not respond to min-width.    This problem is due to native buttons.  A <span> inside a native button will exhibit the same problem, despite having "display:inline-block" set.  When changes are made to other style parameters and the browser is forced to abandon the native button, the min-width setting takes affect.  

See also

• width, max-width, min-height
• The box model, box-sizing