max-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.

The max-height CSS property sets the maximum height of an element. It prevents the used value of the height property from becoming larger than the value specified for max-height.

Try it

max-height overrides height, but min-height overrides max-height.

Syntax

css

/* <length> value */
max-height: 3.5em;
max-height: anchor-size(height);
max-height: calc(anchor-size(--myAnchor self-block, 250px) + 2em);

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

/* Keyword values */
max-height: none;
max-height: max-content;
max-height: min-content;
max-height: fit-content;
max-height: fit-content(20em);
max-height: stretch;

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

Values

<length>: Defines the max-height as an absolute value.
<percentage>: Defines the max-height as a percentage of the containing block's height.
none: No limit on the size of the box.
max-content: The intrinsic preferred max-height.
min-content: The intrinsic minimum max-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, argument)).
stretch: Limits the maximum 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.

Note: To check aliases used by browsers for the stretch value and its implementation status, see the Browser compatibility section.

Accessibility

Ensure that elements set with a max-height are not truncated and/or do not obscure other content when the page is zoomed to increase text size.

Formal definition

Initial value	`none`
Applies to	all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table columns, and column groups
Inherited	no
Percentages	The 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 percentage value is treated as `none`.
Computed value	the percentage as specified or the absolute length or `none`
Animation type	a length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

max-height = 
  none                                      |
  <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> = 
  <intrinsic-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 max-height using percentage and keyword values

css

table {
  max-height: 75%;
}

form {
  max-height: none;
}

Specifications

Specification
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4 # width-height-keywords
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4 # sizing-values

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser