height

The height CSS property specifies the height of an element. By default, the property defines the height of the content area. If box-sizing is set to border-box, however, it instead determines the height of the border area.

Try it

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

Note: As a geometric property, height also applies to the <svg>, <rect>, <image>, and <foreignObject> SVG elements, with auto resolving to 0 and percent values being relative to the SVG viewport height for <rect>. The CSS height property value overrides any SVG height attribute value set on the SVG element.

Syntax

css

/* <length> values */
height: 120px;
height: 10em;
height: 100vh;
height: anchor-size(height);
height: anchor-size(--myAnchor self-block, 250px);
height: clamp(200px, anchor-size(width));

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

/* Keyword values */
height: max-content;
height: min-content;
height: fit-content;
height: fit-content(20em);
height: auto;
height: minmax(min-content, anchor-size(width));
height: stretch;

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

Values

<length>: Defines the height as a distance value.
<percentage>: Defines the height as a percentage of the containing block's height.
auto: The browser will calculate and select a height for the specified element.
max-content: The intrinsic preferred height.
min-content: The intrinsic minimum 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, <length-percentage>)).
stretch: Sets the 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 height aren't truncated and/or don't obscure other content when the page is zoomed to increase text size.

Formal definition

Initial value	`auto`
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 value computes to `auto`. A percentage height on the root element is relative to the initial containing block.
Computed value	a percentage or `auto` or the absolute length
Animation type	a length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

height = 
auto                                      |
<length-percentage [0,∞]>                 |
min-content                               |
max-content                               |
fit-content( <length-percentage [0,∞]> )  |
<calc-size()>                             

<length-percentage> = 
<length>      |
<percentage>  

<calc-size()> = 
calc-size( <calc-size-basis> , <calc-sum> )  

<calc-size-basis> = 
<intrinsic-size-keyword>  |
<calc-size()>             |
any                       |
<calc-sum>                

<calc-sum> = 
<calc-product> [ [ '+' | '-' ] <calc-product> ]*  

<calc-product> = 
<calc-value> [ [ '*' | '/' ] <calc-value> ]*  

<calc-value> = 
<number>        |
<dimension>     |
<percentage>    |
<calc-keyword>  |
  ( <calc-sum> )  

<calc-keyword> = 
e          |
pi         |
infinity   |
-infinity  |
NaN

Examples

Setting height using pixels and percentages

HTML

html

<div id="taller">I'm 50 pixels tall.</div>
<div id="shorter">I'm 25 pixels tall.</div>
<div id="parent">
  <div id="child">I'm half the height of my parent.</div>
</div>

CSS

css

div {
  width: 250px;
  margin-bottom: 5px;
  border: 2px solid blue;
}

#taller {
  height: 50px;
}

#shorter {
  height: 25px;
}

#parent {
  height: 100px;
}

#child {
  height: 50%;
  width: 75%;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 3 # preferred-size-properties
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4 # sizing-values

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser