📄 tailwindcss/docs/background-position

File: background-position.md | Updated: 11/15/2025

Source: https://tailwindcss.com/docs/background-position

v4.1

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  1. Backgrounds
  2. background-position

Backgrounds

background-position

Utilities for controlling the position of an element's background image.

| Class | Styles | | --- | --- | | bg-top-left | background-position: top left; | | bg-top | background-position: top; | | bg-top-right | background-position: top right; | | bg-left | background-position: left; | | bg-center | background-position: center; | | bg-right | background-position: right; | | bg-bottom-left | background-position: bottom left; | | bg-bottom | background-position: bottom; | | bg-bottom-right | background-position: bottom right; | | bg-position-(<custom-property>) | background-position: var(<custom-property>); | | bg-position-[<value>] | background-position: <value>; |

Examples

Basic example

Use utilities like bg-center, bg-right, and bg-top-left to control the position of an element's background image:

Hover over these examples to see the full image

bg-top-left

bg-top

bg-top-right

bg-left

bg-center

bg-right

bg-bottom-left

bg-bottom

bg-bottom-right

<div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-top-left"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-top"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-top-right"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-left"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-center"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-right"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-bottom-left"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-bottom"></div><div class="bg-[url(/img/mountains.jpg)] bg-bottom-right"></div>

Using a custom value

Use the bg-position-[<value>] syntax to set the background position based on a completely custom value:

<div class="bg-position-[center_top_1rem] ...">  <!-- ... --></div>

For CSS variables, you can also use the bg-position-(<custom-property>) syntax:

<div class="bg-position-(--my-bg-position) ...">  <!-- ... --></div>

This is just a shorthand for bg-position-[var(<custom-property>)] that adds the var() function for you automatically.

Responsive design

Prefix a background-position utility with a breakpoint variant like md: to only apply the utility at medium screen sizes and above:

<div class="bg-center md:bg-top ...">  <!-- ... --></div>

Learn more about using variants in the variants documentation .

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