animation-direction

The animation-direction CSS property specifies whether an animation should play forwards, backwards, or alternating back and forth.

/* Single animation */
animation-direction: normal;
animation-direction: reverse;
animation-direction: alternate;
animation-direction: alternate-reverse;
/* Multiple animations */
animation-direction: normal, reverse;
animation-direction: alternate, reverse, normal;
/* Global values */
animation-direction: inherit;
animation-direction: initial;
animation-direction: unset;

It is often convenient to use the shorthand property animation to set all animation properties at once.

Initial value	`normal`
Applies to	all elements, `::before` and `::after` pseudo-elements
Inherited	no
Media	visual
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

Values

normal: The animation plays forwards each cycle. In other words, each time the animation cycles, the animation will reset to the beginning state and start over again. This is the default value.
reverse: The animation plays backwards each cycle. In other words, each time the animation cycles, the animation will reset to the end state and start over again. Animation steps are performed backwards, and timing functions are also reversed. For example, an ease-in timing function becomes ease-out.
alternate: The animation reverses direction each cycle, with the first iteration being played forwards. The count to determine if a cycle is even or odd starts at one.
alternate-reverse: The animation reverses direction each cycle, with the first iteration being played backwards. The count to determinate if a cycle is even or odd starts at one.

Note: When you specify multiple comma-separated values on an animation-* property, they will be assigned to the animations specified in the animation-name property in different ways depending on how many there are. For more information, see Setting multiple animation property values.

Formal syntax

<single-animation-direction>#where 
<single-animation-direction> = normal | reverse | alternate | alternate-reverse

Examples

See CSS animations for examples.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Animations The definition of 'animation-direction' in that specification.	Working Draft	Initial definition.

Feature	Chrome	Edge	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari (WebKit)
Basic support	(Yes)-webkit 43.0	(Yes)-webkit (Yes)	5.0 (5.0)-moz 16.0 (16.0)^[1]	10	12-o 12.50	4.0-webkit
`reverse`	19	(Yes)	16.0 (16.0)	10	(Yes)	(Yes)
`alternate-reverse`	19	(Yes)	16.0 (16.0)	10	(Yes)	(Yes)

Feature	Android	Android Webview	Edge	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Phone	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile	Chrome for Android
Basic support	?	?	(Yes)-webkit (Yes)	5.0 (5.0)-moz 16.0 (16.0)^[1]	?	?	?	(Yes)-webkit 43.0
`reverse`	No support	?	(Yes)	16.0 (16.0)	?	?	No support	(Yes)-webkit
`alternate-reverse`	?	?	(Yes)	16.0 (16.0)	?	?	?	(Yes)-webkit

[1] In addition to the unprefixed support, Gecko 44.0 (Firefox 44.0 / Thunderbird 44.0 / SeaMonkey 2.41) added support for a -webkit- prefixed version of the property for web compatibility reasons behind the preference layout.css.prefixes.webkit, defaulting to false. Since Gecko 49.0 (Firefox 49.0 / Thunderbird 49.0 / SeaMonkey 2.46) the preference defaults to true.