align-items property

The align-items property specifies elements alignment along the cross axis for flex blocks and along the vertical axis for grids. It applies to parent element.

Syntax

selector {
	align-items: flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | stretch;
}

Values

Value	Description
`flex-start`	Blocks are pressed to the start of the cross (vertical) axis.
`flex-end`	Blocks are pressed to the end of the cross (vertical) axis.
`center`	Blocks are centered on the cross (vertical) axis.
`baseline`	Elements are aligned to their baseline. The baseline (or font line) is an imaginary line running along the bottom edge of the characters without taking into account overhangs, for example, like the `'p'`, `'q'`, `'y'`, `'g'` letters.
`stretch`	Blocks are stretched to take up all the available space along the cross axis, while still taking into account `min-width` and `max-width`, if specified. If the width and height for the elements are specified, `stretch` will be ignored.

Default value: stretch.

Example . The stretch value

Now the main axis is directed from left to right, and along the cross axis the elements are stretched to their full height:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: stretch;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The stretch value + element dimensions

The elements are currently given width and height, so the stretch value for the align-items property will be ignored:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: stretch;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 100px;
	height: 50px;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The flex-start value without element dimensions

Now the elements will be pressed to the top:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: flex-start;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The flex-start value + element dimensions

Now the elements will still be pressed to the top, but they will have the specified width and height:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: flex-start;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 100px;
	height: 50px;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The flex-end value + element dimensions

Now the elements will be pressed to the bottom:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: flex-end;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 100px;
	height: 50px;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The center value + element dimensions

Now the elements will be centered along the cross axis (in this case, vertically):

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: center;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 100px;
	height: 50px;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The center value, elements of various sizes

Now the elements have different sizes in height (now they are separated by text, but you can also set height), all have the same width, since the width property is set:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: center;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 100px;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . The baseline value, elements of various sizes

This is how alignment to the baseline looks like:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: flex;
	align-items: baseline;
	flex-direction: row;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#parent > div {
	width: 130px;
	line-height: 1;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Example . Alignment to the start of the vertical axis in the grid

Let's align our elements inside the cells to the start of the vertical axis:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: grid;
	align-items: flex-start;
	grid-template-columns: 100px 100px;
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	border: 2px solid #696989;
	height: 200px;
	width: 400px;
}
#parent > div {
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	box-sizing: border-box;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Now let's look at our grid in the browser debugger:

Example . Aligning to the center of the vertical axis in the grid

Now let’s align our elements in the cells along the center of the vertical axis:

<div id="parent">
	<div>1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: grid;
	align-items: center;
	grid-template-columns: 100px 100px;
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	border: 2px solid #696989;
	height: 200px;
	width: 400px;
}
#parent > div {
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	box-sizing: border-box;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}

Let's look at the grid display in the debugger:

Example . Aligning to the end of the vertical axis in the grid

Let's change the alignment of the elements again, this time to the end of the vertical axis:

<div id="parent">
	<div id="elem1">1</div>
	<div>2</div>
	<div>3</div>
	<div>4</div>
	<div>5</div>
</div>

#parent {
	display: grid;
	align-items: end;
	grid-template-columns: 100px 100px;
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	border: 2px solid #696989;
	height: 200px;
	width: 400px;
}
#parent > div {
	gap: 10px;
	padding: 10px;
	box-sizing: border-box;
	border: 1px solid #696989;
}
#elem1 {
	
}

Now let's see via the debugger what our grid looks like: