caption-side: Place a Table Caption Above or Below

CSS Reference

caption-side places a table caption above or below the table. It affects placement rather than cell order or the caption’s text alignment.

Syntax and value choices

Property	Initial value	Inherited	Main application conditions
`caption-side`	top	Yes	Table-caption boxes

Initial values are not necessarily the values assigned to HTML elements by the browser’s stylesheet. Inspect the actual result in developer tools’ Computed panel.

table { caption-side: bottom; }
caption { text-align: start; padding-block: 0.5em; }

Value or category	Behavior and choice
`top`	Place the caption on the block-start side for the usual horizontal writing mode.
`bottom`	Place it on the corresponding block-end side.
`inherit`	Inherit the caption-placement setting.
`text-align`	Align the caption’s text with a separate property.

For supported values and conditions, see MDN caption-side.

Run the example and compare results

Save this complete code as css-reference-10634-example.html in UTF-8 and open it in a browser. Keep its demonstration styles in that file rather than pasting them into a site-wide stylesheet.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>caption-side comparison example</title>
<style>
body { margin: 0; color: #20242b; background: #fff; font: 16px/1.7 "Malgun Gothic", sans-serif; }
#demo { padding: 24px; max-width: 820px; margin: auto; }
h1 { font-size: 22px; margin: 0 0 20px; }
.samples { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 24px; }
.label { margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 700; }
table { border-collapse: collapse; }
td, th { border: 1px solid #006c9c; padding: 10px; }
caption { padding: 8px; font-weight: bold; }
.target { caption-side: bottom; }
.reference { caption-side: top; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<main id="demo">
<h1>caption-side comparison</h1>
<section class="samples"><table class="target"><caption>Monthly sales quantities</caption><tbody><tr><th scope="col">Month</th><th scope="col">Quantity</th></tr><tr><th scope="row">January</th><td>12</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">February</th><td>18</td></tr></tbody></table><table class="reference"><caption>Monthly sales quantities</caption><tbody><tr><th scope="col">Month</th><th scope="col">Quantity</th></tr><tr><th scope="row">January</th><td>12</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">February</th><td>18</td></tr></tbody></table></section>
</main>
</body>
</html>

The same monthly-data caption appears below the first table and above the second. Its source position stays first within each table.

Preserve the table’s semantic structure

Place caption as the first element child of table, then choose visual placement with CSS. Replacing it with an unrelated paragraph weakens the direct table-title relationship. Make the caption accurately describe the data it introduces.

Caption size and writing direction

Long captions wrap according to available table and layout width. Check vertical writing separately from the usual top/bottom appearance. Use appropriate padding or spacing to separate the caption from the table.

Change one setting at a time

Use the complete example file above. Change only the specified selector or value rather than several comparison conditions at once.

Keep caption as table’s first element child and change only caption-side between top and bottom. The title should describe the monthly quantities.
Try a long caption and compare wrapping, then change only text-align between start and center. Restore it after distinguishing placement from alignment inside the caption.

Check the relevant conditions in HTML caption placement rules.

For table-wide sizing and cell layout, see CSS Tables: Borders, Sizing, and table-layout.

When the result is missing or unexpected

Use an actual caption element rather than a styled paragraph.
Inspect a rule on caption that overrides an inherited table setting.

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