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.

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: revert;
width: unset;

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>)).

Accessibility concerns

Ensure that elements set with a width 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 rows, and row groups
Inheritedno
Percentagesrefer to the width of the containing block
Computed valuea percentage or auto or the absolute length
Animation typea length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

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

Example using 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>

Example with percentage

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

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

Example using "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>

Example using "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>

Specifications

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

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also