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

height: 150px;

height: 6em;

height: 75%;

height: auto;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    This is a box where you can change the height.
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  background-color: #5b6dcd;
  justify-content: center;
  color: white;
}

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

Syntax

/* <length> values */
height: 120px;
height: 10em;
height: 100vh;
height: anchor-size(height);
height: anchor-size(--my-anchor 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: 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.

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.

• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.4 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.4 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0

Formal definition

Formal syntax

height = 
  auto                                      |
  <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> = 
  <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 height using pixels and percentages

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

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

Stretch height to fill the containing block

HTML

<div class="parent">
  <div class="child">text</div>
</div>

<div class="parent">
  <div class="child stretch">stretch</div>
</div>

CSS

.parent {
  height: 150px;
  margin: 1rem;
  border: solid;
}

.child {
  margin: 1rem;
  background: #00999999;
}

.stretch {
  height: stretch;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• width
• box-sizing
• min-height, max-height
• block-size, inline-size
• anchor-size()
• clamp()
• minmax()
• SVG height attribute
• Introduction to the CSS box model
• CSS box model module