How it works
Here’s what you need to know before getting started with the navbar:
- Navbars require a wrapping
.navbar
with.navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl}
for responsive collapsing and color scheme classes. - Navbars and their contents are fluid by default. Change the container to limit their horizontal width in different ways.
- Use our spacing and flex utility classes for controlling spacing and alignment within navbars.
- Navbars are responsive by default, but you can easily modify them to change that. Responsive behavior depends on our Collapse JavaScript plugin.
- Ensure accessibility by using a
<nav>
element or, if using a more generic element such as a<div>
, add arole="navigation"
to every navbar to explicitly identify it as a landmark region for users of assistive technologies. - Indicate the current item by using
aria-current="page"
for the current page oraria-current="true"
for the current item in a set.
The animation effect of this component is dependent on the prefers-reduced-motion
media query. See the reduced motion section of our accessibility documentation.
Supported content
Navbars come with built-in support for a handful of sub-components. Choose from the following as needed:
.navbar-brand
for your company, product, or project name..navbar-nav
for a full-height and lightweight navigation (including support for dropdowns)..navbar-toggler
for use with our collapse plugin and other navigation toggling behaviors.- Flex and spacing utilities for any form controls and actions.
.navbar-text
for adding vertically centered strings of text..collapse.navbar-collapse
for grouping and hiding navbar contents by a parent breakpoint.- Add an optional
.navbar-scroll
to set amax-height
and scroll expanded navbar content.
Here’s an example of all the sub-components included in a responsive light-themed navbar that automatically collapses at the lg
(large) breakpoint.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item dropdown">
<a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
This example uses background (bg-light
) and spacing (my-2
, my-lg-0
, me-sm-0
, my-sm-0
) utility classes.
Brand
The .navbar-brand
can be applied to most elements, but an anchor works best, as some elements might require utility classes or custom styles.
Text
Add your text within an element with the .navbar-brand
class.
<!-- As a link -->
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
</div>
</nav>
<!-- As a heading -->
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<span class="navbar-brand mb-0 h1">Navbar</span>
</div>
</nav>
Image
You can replace the text within the .navbar-brand
with an <img>
.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
<img src="/docs/5.0/assets/brand/bootstrap-logo.svg" alt="" width="30" height="24">
</a>
</div>
</nav>
Image and text
You can also make use of some additional utilities to add an image and text at the same time. Note the addition of .d-inline-block
and .align-text-top
on the <img>
.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
<img src="/docs/5.0/assets/brand/bootstrap-logo.svg" alt="" width="30" height="24" class="d-inline-block align-text-top">
Bootstrap
</a>
</div>
</nav>
Nav
Navbar navigation links build on our .nav
options with their own modifier class and require the use of toggler classes for proper responsive styling. Navigation in navbars will also grow to occupy as much horizontal space as possible to keep your navbar contents securely aligned.
Add the .active
class on .nav-link
to indicate the current page.
Please note that you should also add the aria-current
attribute on the active .nav-link
.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
<ul class="navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
And because we use classes for our navs, you can avoid the list-based approach entirely if you like.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-controls="navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavAltMarkup">
<div class="navbar-nav">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
You can also use dropdowns in your navbar. Dropdown menus require a wrapping element for positioning, so be sure to use separate and nested elements for .nav-item
and .nav-link
as shown below.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNavDropdown" aria-controls="navbarNavDropdown" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavDropdown">
<ul class="navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item dropdown">
<a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdownMenuLink" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown link
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdownMenuLink">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
Forms
Place various form controls and components within a navbar:
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</nav>
Immediate child elements of .navbar
use flex layout and will default to justify-content: space-between
. Use additional flex utilities as needed to adjust this behavior.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand">Navbar</a>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</nav>
Input groups work, too. If your navbar is an entire form, or mostly a form, you can use the <form>
element as the container and save some HTML.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<form class="container-fluid">
<div class="input-group">
<span class="input-group-text" id="basic-addon1">@</span>
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Username" aria-label="Username" aria-describedby="basic-addon1">
</div>
</form>
</nav>
Various buttons are supported as part of these navbar forms, too. This is also a great reminder that vertical alignment utilities can be used to align different sized elements.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<form class="container-fluid justify-content-start">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success me-2" type="button">Main button</button>
<button class="btn btn-sm btn-outline-secondary" type="button">Smaller button</button>
</form>
</nav>
Text
Navbars may contain bits of text with the help of .navbar-text
. This class adjusts vertical alignment and horizontal spacing for strings of text.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<span class="navbar-text">
Navbar text with an inline element
</span>
</div>
</nav>
Mix and match with other components and utilities as needed.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar w/ text</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarText" aria-controls="navbarText" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarText">
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
</li>
</ul>
<span class="navbar-text">
Navbar text with an inline element
</span>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
Color schemes
Theming the navbar has never been easier thanks to the combination of theming classes and background-color
utilities. Choose from .navbar-light
for use with light background colors, or .navbar-dark
for dark background colors. Then, customize with .bg-*
utilities.
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
<!-- Navbar content -->
</nav>
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-primary">
<!-- Navbar content -->
</nav>
<nav class="navbar navbar-light" style="background-color: #e3f2fd;">
<!-- Navbar content -->
</nav>
Containers
Although it’s not required, you can wrap a navbar in a .container
to center it on a page–though note that an inner container is still required. Or you can add a container inside the .navbar
to only center the contents of a fixed or static top navbar.
<div class="container">
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
</div>
</nav>
</div>
Use any of the responsive containers to change how wide the content in your navbar is presented.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-md">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
</div>
</nav>
Placement
Use our position utilities to place navbars in non-static positions. Choose from fixed to the top, fixed to the bottom, or stickied to the top (scrolls with the page until it reaches the top, then stays there). Fixed navbars use position: fixed
, meaning they’re pulled from the normal flow of the DOM and may require custom CSS (e.g., padding-top
on the <body>
) to prevent overlap with other elements.
Also note that .sticky-top
uses position: sticky
, which isn’t fully supported in every browser.
<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Default</a>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar fixed-top navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Fixed top</a>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar fixed-bottom navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Fixed bottom</a>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar sticky-top navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Sticky top</a>
</div>
</nav>
Scrolling
Add .navbar-nav-scroll
to a .navbar-nav
(or other navbar sub-component) to enable vertical scrolling within the toggleable contents of a collapsed navbar. By default, scrolling kicks in at 75vh
(or 75% of the viewport height), but you can override that with the local CSS custom property --bs-navbar-height
or custom styles. At larger viewports when the navbar is expanded, content will appear as it does in a default navbar.
Please note that this behavior comes with a potential drawback of overflow
—when setting overflow-y: auto
(required to scroll the content here), overflow-x
is the equivalent of auto
, which will crop some horizontal content.
Here’s an example navbar using .navbar-nav-scroll
with style="--bs-scroll-height: 100px;"
, with some extra margin utilities for optimum spacing.
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar scroll</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarScroll" aria-controls="navbarScroll" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarScroll">
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto my-2 my-lg-0 navbar-nav-scroll" style="--bs-scroll-height: 100px;">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item dropdown">
<a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarScrollingDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Link
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarScrollingDropdown">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Link</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
Responsive behaviors
Navbars can use .navbar-toggler
, .navbar-collapse
, and .navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl}
classes to determine when their content collapses behind a button. In combination with other utilities, you can easily choose when to show or hide particular elements.
For navbars that never collapse, add the .navbar-expand
class on the navbar. For navbars that always collapse, don’t add any .navbar-expand
class.
Toggler
Navbar togglers are left-aligned by default, but should they follow a sibling element like a .navbar-brand
, they’ll automatically be aligned to the far right. Reversing your markup will reverse the placement of the toggler. Below are examples of different toggle styles.
With no .navbar-brand
shown at the smallest breakpoint:
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarTogglerDemo01" aria-controls="navbarTogglerDemo01" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarTogglerDemo01">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Hidden brand</a>
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
With a brand name shown on the left and toggler on the right:
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarTogglerDemo02" aria-controls="navbarTogglerDemo02" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarTogglerDemo02">
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
With a toggler on the left and brand name on the right:
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
<div class="container-fluid">
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarTogglerDemo03" aria-controls="navbarTogglerDemo03" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarTogglerDemo03">
<ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form class="d-flex">
<input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
External content
Sometimes you want to use the collapse plugin to trigger a container element for content that structurally sits outside of the .navbar
. Because our plugin works on the id
and data-bs-target
matching, that’s easily done!
<div class="collapse" id="navbarToggleExternalContent">
<div class="bg-dark p-4">
<h5 class="text-white h4">Collapsed content</h5>
<span class="text-muted">Toggleable via the navbar brand.</span>
</div>
</div>
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
<div class="container-fluid">
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarToggleExternalContent" aria-controls="navbarToggleExternalContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
</div>
</nav>
When you do this, we recommend including additional JavaScript to move the focus programmatically to the container when it is opened. Otherwise, keyboard users and users of assistive technologies will likely have a hard time finding the newly revealed content - particularly if the container that was opened comes before the toggler in the document’s structure. We also recommend making sure that the toggler has the aria-controls
attribute, pointing to the id
of the content container. In theory, this allows assistive technology users to jump directly from the toggler to the container it controls–but support for this is currently quite patchy.
Sass
Variables
$navbar-padding-y: $spacer / 2;
$navbar-padding-x: null;
$navbar-nav-link-padding-x: .5rem;
$navbar-brand-font-size: $font-size-lg;
// Compute the navbar-brand padding-y so the navbar-brand will have the same height as navbar-text and nav-link
$nav-link-height: $font-size-base * $line-height-base + $nav-link-padding-y * 2;
$navbar-brand-height: $navbar-brand-font-size * $line-height-base;
$navbar-brand-padding-y: ($nav-link-height - $navbar-brand-height) / 2;
$navbar-brand-margin-end: 1rem;
$navbar-toggler-padding-y: .25rem;
$navbar-toggler-padding-x: .75rem;
$navbar-toggler-font-size: $font-size-lg;
$navbar-toggler-border-radius: $btn-border-radius;
$navbar-toggler-focus-width: $btn-focus-width;
$navbar-toggler-transition: box-shadow .15s ease-in-out;
$navbar-dark-color: rgba($white, .55);
$navbar-dark-hover-color: rgba($white, .75);
$navbar-dark-active-color: $white;
$navbar-dark-disabled-color: rgba($white, .25);
$navbar-dark-toggler-icon-bg: url("data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 30 30'><path stroke='#{$navbar-dark-color}' stroke-linecap='round' stroke-miterlimit='10' stroke-width='2' d='M4 7h22M4 15h22M4 23h22'/></svg>");
$navbar-dark-toggler-border-color: rgba($white, .1);
$navbar-light-color: rgba($black, .55);
$navbar-light-hover-color: rgba($black, .7);
$navbar-light-active-color: rgba($black, .9);
$navbar-light-disabled-color: rgba($black, .3);
$navbar-light-toggler-icon-bg: url("data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 30 30'><path stroke='#{$navbar-light-color}' stroke-linecap='round' stroke-miterlimit='10' stroke-width='2' d='M4 7h22M4 15h22M4 23h22'/></svg>");
$navbar-light-toggler-border-color: rgba($black, .1);
$navbar-light-brand-color: $navbar-light-active-color;
$navbar-light-brand-hover-color: $navbar-light-active-color;
$navbar-dark-brand-color: $navbar-dark-active-color;
$navbar-dark-brand-hover-color: $navbar-dark-active-color;
Loop
Responsive navbar expand/collapse classes (e.g., .navbar-expand-lg
) are combined with the $breakpoints
map and generated through a loop in scss/_navbar.scss
.
// Generate series of `.navbar-expand-*` responsive classes for configuring
// where your navbar collapses.
.navbar-expand {
@each $breakpoint in map-keys($grid-breakpoints) {
$next: breakpoint-next($breakpoint, $grid-breakpoints);
$infix: breakpoint-infix($next, $grid-breakpoints);
// stylelint-disable-next-line scss/selector-no-union-class-name
&#{$infix} {
@include media-breakpoint-up($next) {
flex-wrap: nowrap;
justify-content: flex-start;
.navbar-nav {
flex-direction: row;
.dropdown-menu {
position: absolute;
}
.nav-link {
padding-right: $navbar-nav-link-padding-x;
padding-left: $navbar-nav-link-padding-x;
}
}
.navbar-nav-scroll {
overflow: visible;
}
.navbar-collapse {
display: flex !important; // stylelint-disable-line declaration-no-important
flex-basis: auto;
}
.navbar-toggler {
display: none;
}
}
}
}
}