scroll-behavior

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2022.

The scroll-behavior CSS property sets the behavior for a scrolling box when scrolling is triggered by the navigation or CSSOM scrolling APIs.

Try it

Note that any other scrolls, such as those performed by the user, are not affected by this property. When this property is specified on the root element, it applies to the viewport instead. This property specified on the body element will not propagate to the viewport.

User agents are allowed to ignore this property.

Syntax

css
/* Keyword values */
scroll-behavior: auto;
scroll-behavior: smooth;

/* Global values */
scroll-behavior: inherit;
scroll-behavior: initial;
scroll-behavior: revert;
scroll-behavior: revert-layer;
scroll-behavior: unset;

The scroll-behavior property is specified as one of the keyword values listed below.

Values

auto

The scrolling box scrolls instantly.

smooth

The scrolling box scrolls in a smooth fashion using a user-agent-defined easing function over a user-agent-defined period of time. User agents should follow platform conventions, if any.

Formal definition

Initial valueauto
Applies toscrolling boxes
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typeNot animatable

Formal syntax

scroll-behavior = 
  auto    |
  smooth

Examples

Setting smooth scroll behavior

HTML

html
<nav>
  <a href="#page-1">1</a>
  <a href="#page-2">2</a>
  <a href="#page-3">3</a>
</nav>
<div class="scroll-container">
  <div class="scroll-page" id="page-1">1</div>
  <div class="scroll-page" id="page-2">2</div>
  <div class="scroll-page" id="page-3">3</div>
</div>

CSS

css
a {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 50px;
  text-decoration: none;
}
nav,
.scroll-container {
  display: block;
  margin: 0 auto;
  text-align: center;
}
nav {
  width: 339px;
  padding: 5px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.scroll-container {
  width: 350px;
  height: 200px;
  overflow-y: scroll;
  scroll-behavior: smooth;
}
.scroll-page {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  height: 100%;
  font-size: 5em;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Overflow Module Level 3
# smooth-scrolling

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser