Bootstrap - Center a div element horizontally

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about how to center a div element horizontally in Bootstrap with the help of examples.

Consider, that we have the following div element in Bootstrap:

<div>
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

To center a div horizontally in Bootstrap, add the utlity class d-flex and justify-content-center to the div element class attribute.

“justify-content-center” centers the div horizontally.

Here is an example:

<div class="d-flex justify-content-center">
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

Note: The above utility classes use the flexbox which can work on Bootstrap 4, and 5 versions.

If you are using the bootstrap version which is below 4, then you can add the flexbox using the custom CSS class.

<div class="center-h">
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

.center-h{
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
}

Centering the div horizontally using absolute position

We can use the CSS absolute positioning in bootstrap to center a div horizontally.

Here is an example:

<div class="center-h">
     <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

.center-h{
   position: absolute;
   left: 50%;
   transform: translateX(-50%);
}

1. Here we added position:absolute to the div element, so the element breaks out from the normal document flow and is positioned to its relative parent (eg: body or parent element).

2. The left:50% moves the element 50% right from its position.

3. The translateX(-50%) moves the element 50% left from it’s position.