Transitions

Tailwind CSS transition Class

The transition utility class generates the following CSS when applied to an element.

CSS Output

CSS
.transition {
  transition-property: color, background-color, border-color,
    text-decoration-color, fill, stroke, opacity,
    box-shadow, transform, filter, backdrop-filter;
  transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1);
  transition-duration: 150ms;
}

Variants

Use these variant prefixes to apply transition conditionally:

responsive:transitionmotion-safe:transitionmotion-reduce:transition

Use It

HTML
<button class="transition hover:bg-blue-600 bg-blue-500 text-white px-4 py-2 rounded">
  Smooth hover transition
</button>

Understanding transition

The Tailwind CSS transition utility applies transition-property: color, background-color, border-color, to an element when added to its class attribute. It enables transitions on common CSS properties including colors, opacity, shadow, transform, and filter. Uses a 150ms duration with an ease-in-out curve by default.

This utility is part of Tailwind's Transitions module, designed for adding smooth CSS transitions with configurable duration, timing, and property targeting. In Tailwind's utility-first workflow, you add transition directly to your HTML elements rather than writing custom CSS. This approach accelerates development and keeps styles co-located with your markup, making it easy to see exactly how each element is styled at a glance.

Common responsive variants include sm:transition, md:transition, lg:transition, and xl:transition, allowing different behavior at each breakpoint. State variants like hover:transition and focus:transition enable interactive styling without any JavaScript. You can also combine multiple variants for fine-grained control over when the utility applies.

This class works well alongside `transition-all`, `transition-colors`, `transition-opacity`, `duration-300` to build complete, production-ready interfaces. Tailwind's tree-shaking ensures only utilities you actually use appear in your final CSS bundle, keeping file sizes minimal. Browser support for the underlying CSS is excellent across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

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