CSS animation-delay Property

The CSS animation-delay property specifies the start of an animation. The animation can start later, immediately after the start, or immediately and halfway through the animation.

The animation-delay property is one of the CSS3 properties.

Default value is 0. Negative values are allowed. When negative values are used, the animation will start as if it had already been playing for N seconds/milliseconds.

When multiple comma-separated values are specified for any animation property, they will be attached to the animations that are defined in animation-name differently.

If an animation’s keyframes have an implicit starting value, the values will be taken from the time when animation starts.

Initial Value 0s
Applies to All elements, ::before and ::after pseudo-elements.
Inherited No.
Animatable No.
Version CSS3
DOM Syntax object.style.animationDelay = "1s";

Syntax

animation-delay: time | initial | inherit;

Example of the animation-delay property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <style>
      div {
        width: 120px;
        height: 120px;
        background: #1c87c9;
        position: relative;
        animation: delay 5s infinite;
        animation-delay: 3s;
      }
      @keyframes delay {
        from {
          left: 0px;
        }
        to {
          left: 300px;
        }
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Animation-delay example</h2>
    <p>Here the animation starts after 3 seconds.</p>
    <div></div>
  </body>
</html>

Example of the animation-delay property with a negative value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <style>
      div {
        width: 100px;
        height: 100px;
        background: #ccc;
        position: relative;
        animation: delay 5s 1;
        animation-delay: -2s;
      }
      @keyframes delay {
        from {
          left: 0px;
        }
        to {
          left: 300px;
        }
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Animation-delay example with negative value.</h2>
    <p>Here, the animation will start as if it had already been playing for 2 seconds.</p>
    <div></div>
  </body>
</html>

Example of the animation-delay property specified in milliseconds:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <style>
      div {
        width: 120px;
        height: 120px;
        background: #8ebf42;
        position: relative;
        animation: delay 5s 1;
        animation-delay: 200ms;
      }
      @keyframes delay {
        from {
          left: 0px;
        }
        to {
          left: 300px;
        }
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Animation-delay example in milliseconds.</h2>
    <p>Here, the animation will start after 200ms.</p>
    <div></div>
  </body>
</html>

Values

Value Description Play it
time Defines the number of seconds (s) or milliseconds (ms) to wait before the animation will start. It is optional. Play it »
initial Sets the property to its default value.
inherit Inherits the property from its parent element.

Browser support

chrome firefox safari opera
43.0+
4.0-42.0 -webkit-
16.0+
5.0-15.0 -moz-
9.0+
5.1-8.0 -webkit-
12.0+
15.0-29.0 -webkit-

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