The main difference between a div and a span in HTML is their default display behavior. 1. A div is a block-level element that starts on a new line and takes up the full width available, making it ideal for grouping larger sections of content or applying layout styles such as with Flexbox or Grid. 2. A span is an inline element that only takes up as much space as its content and flows within the surrounding text, making it suitable for styling or manipulating small parts of text without disrupting the page flow. 3. Divs can contain both block and inline elements, while spans should only contain text or other inline elements. 4. To make a span respect width settings, its display property must be changed via CSS. Use divs for structural grouping and spans for inline text styling.
The main difference between a div
and a span
in HTML is how they behave by default on the page. A div
is a block-level element, which means it takes up the full width available and starts on a new line. A span
, on the other hand, is an inline element — it only takes up as much width as its content and flows within the surrounding text or elements.

When to use div
Use a div
when you need to group larger chunks of content or other elements together that should stand on their own line. It’s commonly used for layout purposes like wrapping sections of a webpage.

- Great for creating containers for headers, footers, sidebars
- Useful when applying background colors or borders that span the full width
- Works well with CSS Flexbox or Grid for layout control
For example:
<div class="section"> <h2>About Me</h2> <p>I enjoy building websites using HTML and CSS.</p> </div>
This block will sit on its own line and push other elements above or below it.

When to use span
Use a span
when you want to style or target a small part of text or inline content without breaking the flow of the page.
- Ideal for highlighting certain words inside a paragraph
- Used to apply styles to parts of a sentence
- Often used with JavaScript to manipulate specific text parts
Example:
<p>My favorite color is <span style="max-width:90%">blue</span>.</p>
Here, “blue” appears inline with the rest of the sentence and doesn’t force a line break.
Key visual behavior differences
Because div
is block-level and span
is inline, they affect layout differently even if you don’t add any CSS:
-
div
:- Starts on a new line
- Takes full width unless told otherwise
- Can contain both block and inline elements
-
span
:- Flows with text
- Only takes up needed space
- Should only contain other inline elements or text
If you try to set a width on a span
, it won’t do anything unless you change its display type using CSS (like display: inline-block
or display: block
).
Summary
You can think of div
as a container for big chunks of stuff that should sit by themselves, and span
as a wrapper for tiny bits of text or inline elements.
Just remember:
- Use
div
for grouping and styling blocks - Use
span
for targeting and styling parts of text
That’s basically it — not rocket science, but super important for writing clean, meaningful HTML.
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