Documentation and examples for Bootstrap’s powerful, responsive navigation header, the navbar. Includes support for branding, navigation, and more, including support for our collapse plugin.
Bootstrap Navbar documentationHere’s what you need to know before getting started with the navbar:
.navbar with .navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl} for responsive collapsing and color scheme classes.<nav> element or, if using a more generic element such as a <div>, add a role="navigation" to every navbar to explicitly identify it as a landmark region for users of assistive technologies.aria-current="page" for the current page or aria-current="true" for the current item in a set.prefers-reduced-motion media query. See the reduced motion section of our accessibility documentation.
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..navbar-text for adding vertically centered strings of text..collapse.navbar-collapse for grouping and hiding navbar contents by a parent breakpoint.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-gray-100">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#0">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 ms-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link1</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link2</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link3</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link4</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link5</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#0">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 ms-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link1</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link2</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link3</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link4</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link5</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
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-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarColor01" aria-controls="navbarColor01" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarColor01">
<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>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">About</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-light" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-primary">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarColor02" aria-controls="navbarColor02" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarColor02">
<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>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">About</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-light" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light" style="background-color: #e3f2fd;">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarColor03" aria-controls="navbarColor03" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
</button>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarColor03">
<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>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#">About</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-primary" type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
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 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 fixed-top navbar-light bg-gray-100">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#0">Fixed top</a>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar fixed-bottom navbar-light bg-gray-100">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#0">Fixed bottom</a>
</div>
</nav>
<nav class="navbar sticky-top navbar-light bg-gray-100">
<div class="container-fluid">
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#0">Sticky top</a>
</div>
</nav>
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>
Navbars can utilize .navbar-toggler, .navbar-collapse, and .navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl} classes to change 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.
<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="#0">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="#0">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#0" 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>
Sometimes you want to use the collapse plugin to trigger hidden content elsewhere on the page. Because our plugin works on the id and data-target matching, that’s easily done!
<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="#0">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="#0">Home</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="#0">Link</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link disabled" href="#0" 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>
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.