What is the difference between content-box and border-box sizing?
Jun 23, 2025 am 12:45 AMThe box-sizing property of CSS has two values: content-box and border-box. 1. content-box is the default value. The width and height of the element are only applied to the content area. padding and border will add the total size of the element; 2. border-box will include the content, padding and border in the set width and height to make the layout more controllable. For example, after setting width to 300px, under the content-box model, if 20px padding and 5px border are added, the actual width of the element becomes 350px; and when using border-box, the element always maintains a width of 300px regardless of how padding and border change. Therefore, border-box is widely used in modern front-end frameworks to simplify layout computing.
When you're working with CSS and trying to control the size of elements, two values ??for the box-sizing
property come into play: content-box
and border-box
. The main difference between them is how they calculate an element's total width and height.
With content-box
, the default in CSS, the width and height apply only to the content area. Any padding or border added will increase the total space the element takes up. On the other hand, border-box
includes the content, padding, and border within the specified width and height — meaning what you set is exactly what you get, and padding or borders won't push things around unexpectedly.
How content-box
Works
Under the content-box
model, if you set an element's width to 300px and add 20px of padding and a 5px border, the actual space it occurs becomes 350px wide (300 20 2 5 2). That's because padding and borders are added on top of the content size.
This can be confusing when you're trying to line things up precisely. You might expect a box to fit into a 300px-wide container, but due to padding and borders, it actually overflows slightly unless you manually subtract those values ??from the width.
Here's a quick breakdown:
- Content width: 300px
- Padding: 20px each side → adds 40px total
- Border: 5px each side → adds 10px total
- Total visible width: 350px
Why People Prefer border-box
Using border-box
avoids that math headache. When you set an element's width to 300px, that 300px already includes the content, padding, and border. So even if you add padding or borders, the box stays exactly 300px wide — which makes layout design more predictable.
This behavior is especially useful when building grids, cards, or any layout where precise spacing matters. Most modern CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind use border-box
by default, and many developers apply it globally using:
* { box-sizing: border-box; }
That way, every element behaves consistently without needing extra calculations.
When You Might Still Use content-box
While border-box
is generally easier to work with, there are cases where content-box
could make sense. For example, if you want to create a flexible inner container that expands based on its content while keeping padding or borders separate, content-box
gives you that behavior naturally.
Also, some UI components — like input fields or buttons — sometimes behave differently across browsers, and using content-box
may help match native styles more closely in certain edge cases.
Still, these situations are rare. For most layouts, sticking with border-box
saves time and reduces errors.
Basically that's it.
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