The HTML <head> element provides general information (metadata) about the document, including its title and links to its scripts and style sheets.
| Content categories | None. |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | If the document is an <iframe> srcdoc document, or if title information is available from a higher level protocol, zero or more elements of metadata content.Otherwise, one or more elements of metadata content where exactly one is a <title> element. |
| Tag omission | The start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the head element is an element. The end tag may be omitted if the first thing following the head element is not a space character or a comment. |
| Permitted parents | An <html> element, as its first child. |
| Permitted ARIA roles | None |
| DOM interface | HTMLHeadElement |
Attributes
This element includes the global attributes.
profile- The URIs of one or more metadata profiles, separated by white space.
Example
<html>
<head>
<title>Document title</title>
</head>
</html>
Notes
Modern, HTML5-compliant browsers automatically construct a <head> element if the tags are omitted in the markup. This behavior cannot be guaranteed in ancient browsers.
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| HTML Living Standard The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | No change from latest shapshot |
| HTML5 The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Obsoleted profile |
| HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub
| Desktop | Mobile | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support Yes | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Edge Mobile Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
profile | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support Yes | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Edge Mobile Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See also
- Elements that can be used inside a
<head>element:<title>,<base>,<link>,<style>,<meta>,<script>,<noscript>,<template>
Document Tags and Contributors
Tags:
Contributors to this page:
quanticle,
Sheppy,
Mems,
snuggs,
fscholz,
sideshowbarker,
erikadoyle,
magic_mike,
amuntner-test,
Tigt,
teoli,
Jeremie,
kscarfone,
justleroy,
medicdude,
ethertank,
grendel,
cers,
paul.irish,
McGurk,
hobophobe,
jswisher
Last updated by:
quanticle,