The sx prop

The sx prop is a shortcut for defining custom styles that have access to the theme.

The sx prop lets you work with a superset of CSS that packages all of the style functions exposed in @mui/system. You can specify any valid CSS using this prop, as well as many theme-aware properties that are unique to MUI System.

Basic example

The following demo illustrates how to work with the sx prop. Note that not all of the values are valid CSS properties—that's because the sx keys are mapped to specific properties of the theme. The rest of this document explores this concept in more detail.

Theme-aware properties

Borders

The border property can only receive a number as a value. It creates a solid black border using the number to define the width in pixels:

<Box sx={{ border: 1 }} />
// equivalent to border: '1px solid black'

The borderColor property can receive a string, which represents the path in theme.palette:

<Box sx={{ borderColor: 'primary.main' }} />
// equivalent to borderColor: theme => theme.palette.primary.main

The borderRadius property multiplies the value it receives by the theme.shape.borderRadius value (the default for this value is 4px).

<Box sx={{ borderRadius: 2 }} />
// equivalent to borderRadius: theme => 2 * theme.shape.borderRadius

Read more on the Borders page.

Display

The displayPrint property allows you to specify a CSS display value that will only be applied when printing:

<Box sx={{ displayPrint: 'none' }} /> // equivalent to '@media print': { display: 'none' }

Read more on the Display page.

Grid

The CSS Grid properties gap, rowGap and columnGap multiply the values they receive by the theme.spacing value (the default for the value is 8px).

<Box sx={{ gap: 2 }} />
// equivalent to gap: theme => theme.spacing(2)

Read more on the Grid page.

Palette

The color and backgroundColor properties can receive a string, which represents the path in theme.palette:

<Box sx={{ color: 'primary.main' }} />
// equivalent to color: theme => theme.palette.primary.main

The backgroundColor property is also available through its alias bgcolor:

<Box sx={{ bgcolor: 'primary.main' }} />
// equivalent to backgroundColor: theme => theme.palette.primary.main

Read more on the Palette page.

Positions

The zIndex property maps its value to the theme.zIndex value:

<Box sx={{ zIndex: 'tooltip' }} />
// equivalent to zIndex: theme => theme.zIndex.tooltip

Read more on the Positions page.

Shadows

The boxShadow property maps its value to the theme.shadows value:

<Box sx={{ boxShadow: 1 }} />
// equivalent to boxShadow: theme => theme.shadows[1]

Read more on the Shadows page.

Sizing

The sizing properties width, height, minHeight, maxHeight, minWidth, and maxWidth use the following custom transform function for the value:

function transform(value) {
  return value <= 1 && value !== 0 ? `${value * 100}%` : value;
}

If the value is between (0, 1], it's converted to a percentage. Otherwise, it is directly set on the CSS property:

<Box sx={{ width: 1/2 }} /> // equivalent to width: '50%'
<Box sx={{ width: 20 }} /> // equivalent to width: '20px'

Read more on the Sizing page.

Spacing

The spacing properties margin, padding, and the corresponding longhand properties multiply the values they receive by the theme.spacing value (the default for the value is 8px):

<Box sx={{ margin: 2 }} />
// equivalent to margin: theme => theme.spacing(2)

The following aliases are available for the spacing properties:

Read more on the Spacing page.

Typography

The fontFamily, fontSize, fontStyle, fontWeight properties map their value to the theme.typography value:

<Box sx={{ fontWeight: 'fontWeightLight' }} />
// equivalent to fontWeight: theme.typography.fontWeightLight

The same can be achieved by omitting the CSS property prefix fontWeight:

<Box sx={{ fontWeight: 'light' }} />
// equivalent to fontWeight: theme.typography.fontWeightLight

There is an additional typography prop available, which sets all values defined in the specific theme.typography variant:

<Box sx={{ typography: 'body1' }} />
// equivalent to { ...theme.typography.body1 }

Read more on the Typography page.

Responsive values

All properties associated with the sx prop also support responsive values for specific breakpoints and container queries.

Read more on the Usage page—Responsive values.

Callback values

Each property in the sx prop can receive a function callback as a value. This is useful when you want to use the theme for calculating a value:

<Box sx={{ height: (theme) => theme.spacing(10) }} />

The sx prop can also receive a callback when you need to get theme values that are objects:

<Box
  sx={(theme) => ({
    ...theme.typography.body,
    color: theme.palette.primary.main,
  })}
/>

In TypeScript, to use custom theme properties with the sx prop callback, extend the Theme type from the @mui/system library using module augmentation:

import * as React from 'react';
import Box from '@mui/material/Box';
import { createTheme, ThemeProvider } from '@mui/material/styles';
import { orange } from '@mui/material/colors';

declare module '@mui/system' {
  interface Theme {
    status: {
      warning: string;
    };
  }
}

const theme = createTheme({
  status: {
    warning: orange[500],
  },
});

export default function App() {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
      <Box
        sx={(theme) => ({
          bgcolor: theme.status.warning,
        })}
      >
        Example
      </Box>
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
}

Array values

Array types are useful when you want to partially override some styles in the former index:

<Box
  sx={[
    {
      '&:hover': {
        color: 'red',
        backgroundColor: 'white',
      },
    },
    foo && {
      '&:hover': { backgroundColor: 'grey' },
    },
    bar && {
      '&:hover': { backgroundColor: 'yellow' },
    },
  ]}
/>

When you hover on this element, color: red; backgroundColor: white; is applied.

If foo: true, then color: red; backgroundColor: grey; is applied when hovering.

If bar: true, then color: red; backgroundColor: yellow; is applied when hovering regardless of foo value, because the higher index of the array has higher specificity.

<Box
  sx={[
    { mr: 2, color: 'red' },
    (theme) => ({
      '&:hover': {
        color: theme.palette.primary.main,
      },
    }),
  ]}
/>

Passing the sx prop

If you want to receive the sx prop from a custom component and pass it down to another MUI System, we recommend this approach:

Dynamic values

For highly dynamic CSS values, we recommend using inline CSS variables instead of passing an object with varying values to the sx prop on each render. This approach avoids inserting unnecessary style tags into the DOM, which prevents potential performance issues when dealing with CSS properties that can hold a wide range of values that change frequently—for example, a color picker with live preview.

TypeScript usage

A frequent source of confusion with the sx prop is TypeScript's type widening, which causes this example not to work as expected:

const style = {
  flexDirection: 'column',
};

export default function App() {
  return <Button sx={style}>Example</Button>;
}

// Type '{ flexDirection: string; }' is not assignable to type 'SxProps<Theme> | undefined'
// Type '{ flexDirection: string; }' is not assignable to type 'CSSSelectorObject<Theme>'
//   Property 'flexDirection' is incompatible with index signature
//     Type 'string' is not assignable to type 'SystemStyleObject<Theme>'

The problem is that the type of the flexDirection prop is inferred as string, which is too wide. To fix this, you can cast the object/function passed to the sx prop to const:

const style = {
  flexDirection: 'column',
} as const;

export default function App() {
  return <Button sx={style}>Example</Button>;
}

Alternatively, you can pass the style object directly to the sx prop:

export default function App() {
  return <Button sx={{ flexDirection: 'column' }}>Example</Button>;
}

Performance

To learn more about the performance tradeoffs of the sx prop, check out Usage–Performance tradeoffs.