margin-top

The margin-top CSS property sets the margin area on the top of an element. A positive value places it farther from its neighbors, while a negative value places it closer.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

This property has no effect on non-replaced inline elements, such as <span> or <code>.

Syntax

/* <length> values */
margin-top: 10px;  /* An absolute length */
margin-top: 1em;   /* relative to the text size */
margin-top: 5%;    /* relative to the nearest block container's width */

/* Keyword values */
margin-top: auto;

/* Global values */
margin-top: inherit;
margin-top: initial;
margin-top: unset;

The margin-top property is specified as the keyword auto, or a <length>, or a <percentage>. Its value can be positive, zero, or negative.

Values

<length>

The size of the margin as a fixed value.

<percentage>

The size of the margin as a percentage, relative to the width of the containing block.

auto

The browser selects a suitable value to use. See margin.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

<length> | <percentage> | auto

Examples

Setting positive and negative top margins

.content { margin-top:   5%; }
.sidebox { margin-top: 10px; }
.logo    { margin-top: -5px; }
#footer  { margin-top:  1em; }

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• margin-right, margin-bottom, and margin-left and the margin shorthand
• The mapped logical properties: margin-block-start, margin-block-end, margin-inline-start, and margin-inline-end and the shorthands margin-block and margin-inline