<head>: The Document Metadata (Header) element #

::: section-content The <head> HTML element contains machine-readable information ( metadata) about the document, like its title, scripts, and style sheets.

::: {#sect1 .notecard .note} Note: <head> primarily holds information for machine processing, not human-readability. For human-visible information, like top-level headings and listed authors, see the <header> element. ::: :::

Attributes #

::: section-content This element includes the global attributes.

profile [Deprecated]{.visually-hidden} [Non-standard]{.visually-hidden}: The URIs of one or more metadata profiles, separated by white space. :::

Examples #

::: section-content ::: code-example [html]{.language-name}

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Document title</title>
  </head>
</html>

::: :::

Technical summary #

::: section-content

Content categories	None.
Permitted content	If the document is an `<iframe>` `srcdoc` document, or if title information is available from a higher level protocol (like the subject line in HTML email), zero or more elements of metadata content. Otherwise, one or more elements of metadata content where exactly one is a `<title>` element.
Tag omission	The start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the `<head>` element is an element. The end tag may be omitted if the first thing following the `<head>` element is not a space character or a comment.
Permitted parents	An `<html>` element, as its first child.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	No `role` permitted
DOM interface	`HTMLHeadElement`

:::

Specifications #

::: _table #

Specification #

HTML Standard
[# the-head-element]{.small}

:::

Browser compatibility #

::: _table Desktop Mobile

          Chrome    Edge   Firefox   Internet Explorer   Opera   Safari    WebView Android   Chrome Android   Firefox for Android   Opera Android   Safari on IOS   Samsung Internet

head 1 12 1 Yes 15 1 4.4 18 4 14 1 1.0 profile 1 12 1 Yes 15 1–16.4 4.4 18 4 14 1–16.4 1.0 :::