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The CSS Flex-Basis Property

Reading time 1 min
Published Aug 8, 2017
Updated Oct 1, 2019

What is CSS flex basis?

The CSS flex-basis property only applies to flex items. By using it, you can set the initial length for flex items:

Example
a:nth-of-type(3) {
    -webkit-flex-basis: 50px; /* Safari 6.1 and newer */
    flex-basis: 50px;
}

The CSS flex-basis property syntax

The syntax for the flex-basis property is as follows:

flex-basis:value;

The available property values are presented in the following section.

Property values

Value Description
auto The default value. The size of the element depends on width and height properties
content The size of the element depends on its content
Length units The initial size of the flex item defined in CSS length units (e.g., px)
Percentages The initial size of the flex item defined in percentages, representing the relation to the size of the parent flex container

Browser support

Chrome
29+
Edge
12+
Firefox
22+
IE
11+
Opera
12.1+
Safari
9+

Mobile browser support

Chrome
29+
Firefox
22+
Opera
12.1+
Safari
9+
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