`initial` CSS keyword

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since November 2015.

See full compatibility

The initial CSS keyword applies the initial (or default) value of a property to an element. It can be applied to any CSS property, including the CSS shorthand property all. With all set to initial, all CSS properties can be restored to their respective initial values in one go instead of restoring each one separately.

On inherited properties, the initial value may be unexpected. You should consider using the inherit, unset, revert, revert-layer, or revert-rule keywords instead.

Examples

Basic usage

In this example, we use the initial keyword to reset an element's color and font-size property values.

HTML

html

<p>
  This text is red and large.
  <em
    >This text is in the initial color (typically black) and initial size
    (typically 16px).</em
  >
  This is red and large again.
</p>

CSS

We set color and font-size on the <p> element, then set those properties to initial on the <em> element to reset them.

css

p {
  color: red;
  font-size: 2rem;
}

em {
  color: initial;
  font-size: initial;
}

Result

With the initial keyword in this example, the color and font-size values on the em element are restored to the initial values for color and font-size, respectively.

Specifications

Specification
CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 4 # initial

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`initial`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 13 (Release date: 2015-11-12) footnote Full support	Firefox – No support Firefox 1 – 23 (Release date: 2004-11-09) prefix footnote Removed in 24 and later prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: -moz- Firefox – Full support Firefox 19 (Release date: 2013-02-19) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 15 (Release date: 2013-07-02) footnote Full support	Safari – Full support Safari 1.2 (Release date: 2004-02-02) footnote Full support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – No support Firefox for Android 4 – 23 (Release date: 2011-03-29) prefix footnote Removed in 24 and later prefix Implemented with the vendor prefix: -moz- Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 19 (Release date: 2013-02-19) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 14 (Release date: 2013-05-21) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – Full support Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote Full support	Samsung Internet – Full support Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27) footnote Full support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – Full support WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29) footnote Full support

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support: Full support
: Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
: Has more compatibility info.

initial CSS keyword