Question

Utilities for controlling the box shadow of an element.

Quick reference

Class	Properties
shadow-sm	box-shadow: 0 1px 2px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 0.05);
shadow	box-shadow: 0 1px 3px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1), 0 1px 2px -1px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1);
shadow-md	box-shadow: 0 4px 6px -1px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1), 0 2px 4px -2px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1);
shadow-lg	box-shadow: 0 10px 15px -3px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1), 0 4px 6px -4px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1);
shadow-xl	box-shadow: 0 20px 25px -5px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1), 0 8px 10px -6px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.1);
shadow-2xl	box-shadow: 0 25px 50px -12px rgb(0 0 0 / 0.25);
shadow-inner	box-shadow: inset 0 2px 4px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 0.05);
shadow-none	box-shadow: 0 0 #0000;

Basic usage

Adding an outer shadow

Use the shadow-sm, shadow, shadow-md, shadow-lg, shadow-xl, or shadow-2xl utilities to apply different sized outer box shadows to an element.

shadow-md

shadow-lg

shadow-xl

shadow-2xl

<div class="shadow-md ..."></div>
<div class="shadow-lg ..."></div>
<div class="shadow-xl ..."></div>
<div class="shadow-2xl ..."></div>

Adding an inner shadow

Use the shadow-inner utility to apply a subtle inset box shadow to an element. This can be useful for things like form controls or wells.

shadow-inner

<div class="shadow-inner ..."></div>

Removing the shadow

Use shadow-none to remove an existing box shadow from an element. This is most commonly used to remove a shadow that was applied at a smaller breakpoint.

shadow-none

<div class="shadow-none ..."></div>

---

Applying conditionally

Hover, focus, and other states

Tailwind lets you conditionally apply utility classes in different states using variant modifiers. For example, use hover:shadow-lg to only apply the shadow-lg utility on hover.

<div class="shadow hover:shadow-lg">
  <!-- ... -->
</div>

For a complete list of all available state modifiers, check out the Hover, Focus, & Other States documentation.

Breakpoints and media queries

You can also use variant modifiers to target media queries like responsive breakpoints, dark mode, prefers-reduced-motion, and more. For example, use md:shadow-lg to apply the shadow-lg utility at only medium screen sizes and above.

<div class="shadow md:shadow-lg">
  <!-- ... -->
</div>

To learn more, check out the documentation on Responsive Design, Dark Mode and other media query modifiers.

---

Using custom values

Customizing your theme

By default, Tailwind provides six drop shadow utilities, one inner shadow utility, and a utility for removing existing shadows. You can customize these values by editing theme.boxShadow or theme.extend.boxShadow in your tailwind.config.js file.

If a DEFAULT shadow is provided, it will be used for the non-suffixed shadow utility. Any other keys will be used as suffixes, for example the key '2' will create a corresponding shadow-2 utility.

tailwind.config.js

module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      boxShadow: {
        '3xl': '0 35px 60px -15px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3)',
      }
    }
  }
}

Learn more about customizing the default theme in the theme customization documentation.

Arbitrary values

If you need to use a one-off box-shadow value that doesn’t make sense to include in your theme, use square brackets to generate a property on the fly using any arbitrary value.

<div class="shadow-[0_35px_60px_-15px_rgba(0,0,0,0.3)]">
  <!-- ... -->
</div>

Learn more about arbitrary value support in the arbitrary values documentation.