Tooltip

Tooltips display additional information upon click, hover, or focus. The information should be contextual, useful, and nonessential.

Overview
Live demo
Placement
Variants
Feedback

Overview

A tooltip is a message box that is displayed when a user hovers over, clicks or gives focus to a UI element such as an icon, a highlighted word, or a button.

There are three variants of tooltips:

Icon tooltip
Definition tooltip
Interactive tooltip

Live demo

Theme selector

Variant selector

CodeSandbox React Angular Vue Vanilla Web Components

Live editor for the Tooltip component


    <Tooltip
      direction="bottom"
      tabIndex={0}
      triggerText="Tooltip label"
    >
      <p>
        This is some tooltip text. This box shows the maximum amount of text that should be displayed inside. If more room is needed, use a modal instead.
      </p>
      <div className="bx--tooltip__footer">
        <Link href="#">Learn more</Link>
        <Button size="small">
          Create
        </Button>
      </div>
    </Tooltip>


    <Tooltip
      direction="bottom"
      tabIndex={0}
      triggerText="Tooltip label"
    >
      <p>
        This is some tooltip text. This box shows the maximum amount of text that should be displayed inside. If more room is needed, use a modal instead.
      </p>
      <div className="bx--tooltip__footer">
        <Link href="#">Learn more</Link>
        <Button size="small">
          Create
        </Button>
      </div>
    </Tooltip>

Placement

Icon tooltips and interactive tooltips may be positioned top, bottom, left, or right to the trigger item. The container of the tooltip text may be aligned to start, center or end.

Note that left and right positioning is not available for definition tooltip. This ensures the tooltip does not obstruct important information to the left or right of the trigger word.

Tooltips positioned to the left and right.

Variants

Tooltips provide additional, contextual information. Each variant achieves this for different design needs.

An icon tooltip is used to clarify the action or name of an interactive icon button.

Guidance

The tooltip content should only contain one or two words.

Behavior

Icon tooltips are displayed on hover and focus.

The definition tooltip provides additional help or defines an item or term. It may be used on the label of a UI element, or on a word embedded in a paragraph.

Definition tooltip used to define a word within a paragraph.

Guidance

Should contain brief, read-only text
Use on proper nouns, technical terms, or acronyms with two letters or more
Do not use a definition tooltip on words with fewer than two letters

Behavior

Definition tooltips are displayed on hover and focus

Interactive tooltips may contain rich text and other interactive elements like buttons or links. In general, hiding interactive content in a tooltip is discouraged. Interactive tooltips are best used for onboarding experiences and product tours.

Example of an interactive tooltip in a product walk through.

Guidance

If a user may need to visit an external resource, like while using a form, include a link in your interactive tooltip
Don’t use without a label. Consider the context a user needs before clicking a link

Behavior

Interactive tooltips are displayed when the user clicks on an info icon
They persist until intentionally dismissed by clicking outside of the tooltip

Feedback

Help us improve this component by providing feedback, asking questions, and leaving any other comments on GitHub.

Edit this page on GitHub

Components: Toggle

Tooltip: Style

Overview

Live demo

Placement

Variants

Icon tooltip

Guidance

Behavior

Definition tooltip

Guidance

Behavior

Interactive tooltip

Guidance

Behavior

Feedback