The <meta> Element

Key points

Purpose and attribute model

meta can represent document metadata, a pragma directive, or an encoding declaration in serialized HTML. It has no displayed content of its own and is usually placed in head. Microdata can use an itemprop meta element in the body under the relevant placement rules.

Conforming markup uses one of these four identifying attributes on a given element. name, http-equiv, and itemprop also require content. Keep authoring conformance separate from how a browser processes non-conforming markup.

charset and encoding determination

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Page title</title>
</head>

The charset value must ASCII case-insensitively match utf-8. A conforming in-document declaration must be completely within the first 1024 bytes. This lets the parser inspect the start of the file to help decode its text.

The parser can have earlier encoding information, such as a byte order mark (BOM) or a charset in the HTTP response's Content-Type. The in-document declaration alone does not prove which encoding the browser used. When these sources disagree, inspect both the response and the document.

The HTML Standard requires an encoding declaration in an HTML document without a BOM or encoding explicitly supplied by HTTP metadata, except for an iframe srcdoc document.

name and content

name identifies a kind of metadata; content supplies its value. The HTML Standard defines names with different value formats, duplicate rules, and user-agent processing.

Example name	Standard role	Boundary to check
description	A short description of the page	A search service may use it, but its snippet display or ranking is not guaranteed
referrer	The document's default referrer policy	Interaction with Referrer Policy, response headers, and later insertion or changes
theme-color	A candidate color for user-agent interface around the page	Valid color, optional media condition, and browser UI support
color-scheme	Declares color schemes the document can handle	Interaction with CSS Color Adjustment, rendering, and form controls

viewport is handled as a mobile layout viewport mechanism in the CSS Viewport family of specifications. Do not assume it follows the same processing model as the ordinary metadata names defined by HTML; device and browser differences need separate tests. Open Graph names such as og:* come from an external vocabulary, not from HTML alone.

http-equiv and response headers

http-equiv selects pragma directives defined by HTML. Its name contains “http”, but it is not a general mechanism for replacing HTTP response headers.

• content-security-policy applies to the document after the parser reaches the meta element. It cannot act retroactively on earlier content. Directives such as frame-ancestors, sandbox, and report-uri are removed from a policy delivered by meta. Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only is not supported there. A response header is the preferred way to deliver a security policy.
• refresh can cause a reload or navigation. Its runtime behavior should be checked in an isolated fixture rather than by relying on a live page.
• Some directives, such as content-language, have historical dynamic processing rules. Do not infer the result after insertion or removal from the initial markup alone.

Some directive keywords are ASCII case-insensitive, but each directive's value and processing time still need their own check.

DOM interface

In an HTML document, the element is exposed as HTMLMetaElement. Its DOM properties are an entry point for inspecting markup attributes. They do not reveal HTTP response headers or prove the user agent's final behavior.

const description = document.querySelector('meta[name="description"]');

description instanceof HTMLMetaElement;
description.name;
description.content;
description.getAttribute("content");

Specification claims and evidence

Claims, conditions, and verification state are kept separate. Browser implementation, WPT, and accessibility API results are recorded below as Implementation Evidence.

Evidence

1. HTML Standard: The meta element — attribute model, metadata, and pragma directives
2. HTML Standard: Character encoding declaration — UTF-8 declaration and placement
3. HTML Standard: Determining the character encoding — parser decoding steps and precedence
4. Content Security Policy: HTML meta element — boundaries for CSP delivered by meta
5. HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0: meta — role and platform mappings
6. CSS Viewport Module Level 1: viewport meta — viewport descriptor processing

Browser, WPT, and AAM observations

Standards text and measurements are kept separate. We measured a limited fixture and selected WPT files in Chromium-based browsers, and inspected the native Windows UI Automation tree in Edge. The HTML-AAM table and Browser accessibility trees are recorded separately from Windows UIA. NVDA speech remains unmeasured because its spoken output could not be captured.

Measurement status: WPT covers five selected files, and Firefox was not used. The WPT upstream revision was not pinned. Windows UIA was measured in Edge, but NVDA speech output remains unchecked, so AAM coverage is partial.

Checked scope and open questions

• SPECHTML Standard attribute model, encoding declaration, and main metadata/pragma boundaries.
• AAM SPECHTML-AAM role and platform mappings for meta are in scope.
• Assistive technologyNVDA speech and navigation order, plus Windows UIA trees in other browsers, remain unmeasured.
• ViewportCSS Viewport width, zoom, interactive-widget, and browser/device differences need separate measurements.
• Metadata vocabulariesOpen Graph, search-service snippet selection, and non-standard name values are outside HTML Standard definitions.

Related pages

For a short introduction and examples, see the meta element in Yugien. For the relationship between a document and external resources, see the link element. The page title is defined by the title element in the HTML Standard.