box-sizing CSS property

Try it

box-sizing: content-box;
width: 100%;

box-sizing: content-box;
width: 100%;
border: solid #5b6dcd 10px;
padding: 5px;

box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100%;
border: solid #5b6dcd 10px;
padding: 5px;

<section id="default-example">
  <div id="example-element-parent">
    <p>Parent container</p>
    <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
      <p>Child container</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

#example-element-parent {
  width: 220px;
  height: 200px;
  border: solid 10px #ffc129;
  margin: 0.8em;
}

#example-element {
  height: 60px;
  margin: 2em auto;
  background-color: rgb(81 81 81 / 0.6);
}

#example-element > p {
  margin: 0;
}

Syntax

box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: content-box;

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

Values

content-box

This is the initial and default value as specified by the CSS standard. The width and height properties include the content, but does not include the padding, border, or margin. For example, .box {width: 350px; border: 10px solid black;} renders a box that is 370px wide.

Here, the dimensions of the element are calculated as: width = width of the content, and height = height of the content. (Borders and padding are not included in the calculation.)

border-box

The width and height properties include the content, padding, and border, but do not include the margin. Note that padding and border will be inside of the box. For example, .box {width: 350px; border: 10px solid black;} renders a box that is 350px wide, with the area for content being 330px wide. The content box can't be negative and is floored to 0, making it impossible to use border-box to make the element disappear.

Here the dimensions of the element are calculated as: width = border + padding + width of the content, and height = border + padding + height of the content.

Description

• content-box gives you the default CSS box-sizing behavior. If you set an element's width to 100 pixels, then the element's content box will be 100 pixels wide, and the width of any border or padding will be added to the final rendered width, making the element wider than 100px.
• border-box tells the browser to account for any border and padding in the values you specify for an element's width and height. If you set an element's width to 100 pixels, that 100 pixels will include any border or padding you added, and the content box will shrink to absorb that extra width. This typically makes it much easier to size elements.
  box-sizing: border-box is the default styling that browsers use for the <table>, <select>, and <button> elements, and for <input> elements whose type is radio, checkbox, reset, button, submit, color, or search.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

box-sizing = 
  content-box  |
  border-box   

Examples

Box sizes with content-box and border-box

HTML

<div class="content-box">Content box</div>
<br />
<div class="border-box">Border box</div>

CSS

div {
  width: 160px;
  height: 80px;
  padding: 20px;
  border: 8px solid red;
  background: yellow;
}

.content-box {
  box-sizing: content-box;
  /* Total width: 160px + (2 * 20px) + (2 * 8px) = 216px
     Total height: 80px + (2 * 20px) + (2 * 8px) = 136px
     Content box width: 160px
     Content box height: 80px */
}

.border-box {
  box-sizing: border-box;
  /* Total width: 160px
     Total height: 80px
     Content box width: 160px - (2 * 20px) - (2 * 8px) = 104px
     Content box height: 80px - (2 * 20px) - (2 * 8px) = 24px */
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• CSS box model