Basic Structure
HTML <meta> Tag
The <meta> tag defines metadata about an HTML document. Metadata is data (information) about data.
Definition and Usage
The <meta> tag defines metadata about an HTML document. Metadata is data (information) about data.
Standard Syntax:
<meta>Interactive ExampleRunnable
HTML <meta> Example
htmlLive code demonstration for the <meta> tag. Click "Try it Yourself" to edit and experiment in real time.
<div style="font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; padding: 16px; background: #ffffff; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #e2e8f0; color: #0f172a;">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials">
<meta name="keywords" content="HTML, CSS, JavaScript">
<meta name="author" content="John Doe">
<meta
name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
</head>
</div>Attributes for <meta>
4 Supported Attributes| Attribute | Values | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| charset | character_set | none | Specifies the character encoding for the HTML document |
| content | text | none | Specifies the value associated with the http-equiv or name attribute |
| http-equiv | content-security-policycontent-type default-stylerefresh | none | Provides an HTTP header for the information/value of the content attribute |
| name | application-name author description generator keywordsviewport | none | Specifies a name for the metadata |
Global Attributes
The <meta> tag also supports the standard global attributes in HTML, including class, id, style, title, hidden, and data-*.
Event Attributes
The <meta> tag supports event attributes in HTML, such as onclick, onmouseover, onfocus, and more.
Browser Compatibility
ChromeEdgeFirefoxSafariOpera
More Tags in Basic Structure
View All 123Tags →<base>The <base> tag specifies the base URL and/or target for all relative URLs in a document.<body>The <body> tag defines the document's body.<!--...-->The comment tag is used to insert comments in the source code. Comments are not displayed in the browsers.<!DOCTYPE>All HTML documents must start with a <!DOCTYPE> declaration.<head>The <head> element is a container for metadata (data about data) and is placed between the <html> tag and the <body> tag.<html>The <html> tag represents the root of an HTML document.