min-width

The min-width property is used to set the minimum width of a given element. It prevents the used value of the width property from becoming smaller than the value specified for min-width.

The element width is set to the value of min-width whenever min-width is larger than max-width or whenever min-width is larger than width .

Initial value	0
Applies to	all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table rows, and row groups
Inherited	no
Percentages	refer to the width of the containing block
Media	visual
Computed value	the percentage as specified or the absolute length
Animation type	a length, percentage or calc();
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

/* <length> value */
min-width: 3.5em;

/* <percentage> value */
min-width: 10%;

/* Keyword values */
min-width: max-content;
min-width: min-content;
min-width: fit-content;
min-width: fill-available;

/* Global values */
min-width: inherit;
min-width: initial;
min-width: unset;

Values

<length>

The fixed minimum width. See <length> for possible units. Negative values make the declaration invalid.

<percentage>

The fixed minimum width expressed as a <percentage> of containing block's width. Negative values make the declaration invalid.

auto

The default minimum size for flex items, providing a more reasonable default than 0 for other layouts.

max-content

The intrinsic preferred width.

min-content

The intrinsic minimum width.

fill-available

The containing block width minus horizontal margin, border and padding. Some browsers implement an ancient name for this keyword, available.

fit-content

Defined as min(max-content, max(min-content, fill-available).

Formal syntax

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

Examples

table { min-width: 75%; }

form { min-width: 0; }

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Intrinsic & Extrinsic Sizing Module Level 3 The definition of 'min-width' in that specification.	Working Draft	Adds the max-content, min-content, fit-content, and fill-available keywords. (At some times in the past, both CSS3 Box and CSS3 Writing Modes drafts defined these keywords. These drafts has been superseded by this specification.)
CSS Flexible Box Layout Module The definition of 'min-width' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	Added the auto keyword and used it as the initial value.
CSS Transitions The definition of 'min-width' in that specification.	Working Draft	Defines min-width as animatable.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'min-width' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

[1] CSS 2.1 explicitly leaves the behavior of min-width with <table> undefined. Therefore any behavior is CSS2.1-compliant; newer CSS specifications may define this behavior, so Web developers shouldn't rely on a specific one now.

[2] Gecko experimentally implements the definitions given in CSS3 Basic Box. This one defines available and not fill-available. Also the definition of fit-content is simpler than in CSS3 Intrinsic.

[3] WebKit also implements an earlier proposal, the keyword intrinsic.

[4] These implementations where implementing a slightly simpler behavior for this keyword: it computed to min-content on flex items, and it computes to 0 on everything else.

See also

• width, max-width, min-height
• The box model, box-sizing