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HTML <meta> http-equiv Attribute

HTML meta Tag Reference HTML <meta> tag

Example

Refresh document every 30 seconds:

<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30">
</head>

Try it yourself »

Browser Support

Internet Explorer Firefox Opera Google Chrome Safari

The http-equiv attribute is supported in all major browsers.


Definition and Usage

The http-equiv attribute provides an HTTP header for the information/value of the content attribute.

The http-equiv attribute can be used to simulate an HTTP response header.


Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

Using http-equiv is no longer the only way to specify the character set of an HTML document:

  • HTML 4.01: <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
  • HTML5: <meta charset="UTF-8">

Syntax

<meta http-equiv="content-type|default-style|refresh">

Attribute Values

Value Description
content-type Specifies the character encoding for the document.

Example:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

default-style Specified the preferred style sheet to use.

Example:

<meta http-equiv="default-style" content="id_of_link_element">

refresh Defines a time interval for the document to refresh itself.

Example:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="300">

Note: The value "refresh" should be used carefully, as it takes the control of a page away from the user. Using "refresh" will cause a failure in W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.



HTML meta Tag Reference HTML <meta> tag

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