width

The width CSS property sets an element's width. By default, it sets the width of the content area, but if box-sizing is set to border-box, it sets the width of the border area.

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

Syntax

/* <length> values */
width: 300px;
width: 25em;

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

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

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

The width property is specified as either:

• one of the following keyword values: min-content, max-content, fit-content, auto.
• a <length> or a <percentage>.

Values

<length>

Defines the width as an absolute value.

<percentage>

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

auto

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

max-content

The intrinsic preferred width.

min-content

The intrinsic minimum width.

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>)).

Formal syntax

auto | <length> | <percentage> | min-content | max-content | fit-content(<length-percentage>)
where 
<length-percentage> = <length> | <percentage>

Examples

Default width

p.goldie {
  background: gold;
}

<p class="goldie">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

Pixels and ems

.px_length {
  width: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  color: white;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

.em_length {
  width: 20em;
  background-color: white;
  color: red;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

<div class="px_length">Width measured in px</div>
<div class="em_length">Width measured in em</div>

Percentage

.percent {
  width: 20%;
  background-color: silver;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

<div class="percent">Width in percentage</div>

max-content

p.maxgreen {
  background: lightgreen;
  width: intrinsic;           /* Safari/WebKit uses a non-standard name */
  width: -moz-max-content;    /* Firefox/Gecko */
  width: -webkit-max-content; /* Chrome */
  width: max-content;
}

<p class="maxgreen">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

min-content

p.minblue {
  background: lightblue;
  width: -moz-min-content;    /* Firefox */
  width: -webkit-min-content; /* Chrome */
  width: min-content;
}

<p class="minblue">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

Accessibility concerns

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

• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.4 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.4  | Understanding WCAG 2.0

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

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