--- title: "X-UA-Compatible · Meta Tag · zhead" canonical_url: "https://zhead.dev/meta/x-ua-compatible" last_updated: "2026-08-10T16:29:03.385Z" meta: description: "A legacy Internet Explorer pragma whose only conforming value is IE=edge. Current user agents must ignore it, so new pages should omit it." "og:description": "A legacy Internet Explorer pragma whose only conforming value is IE=edge. Current user agents must ignore it, so new pages should omit it." "og:title": "X-UA-Compatible · Meta Tag · zhead" --- Meta tags # X-UA-Compatible A legacy Internet Explorer pragma whose only conforming value is IE=edge. Current user agents must ignore it, so new pages should omit it. ## Code examples Good example ``` ``` The only value allowed by the HTML standard, kept here for reading legacy markup. Current browsers ignore it. Avoid this example ``` ``` Version-specific Internet Explorer document modes are non-conforming. Avoid this example ``` ``` An empty pragma has no effect. Omit the element instead. ## Recommendations - 01 Remove It From New Pages Modern Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari do not use Internet Explorer document modes. The tag adds no value for them. - 02 Use the HTML Doctype Start documents with \ so browsers use standards mode. That remains relevant; X-UA-Compatible does not. ## Related documentation - [HTML Living Standard: Semantics](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#attr-meta-http-equiv-x-ua-compatible) - [Microsoft Learn: Internet Explorer 11 End Of Support](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/internet-explorer-11-end-of-support) ## Related meta tags ### [Content-Security-Policy](https://zhead.dev/meta/content-security-policy) http-equiv Enforces a Content Security Policy from the document head. A policy limits where scripts, styles, images, connections, and other resources can come from, which reduces the impact of content injection bugs. ``` ``` Uses the same origin by default, blocks plugin content, and limits base URLs to the same origin. ### [content-type](https://zhead.dev/meta/content-type) http-equiv Provides the legacy pragma form of an HTML character encoding declaration. For conforming HTML, its content must be text/html; charset=utf-8. ``` ``` The only conforming content value for this pragma in an HTML document. ### [default-style](https://zhead.dev/meta/default-style) http-equiv Selects the preferred CSS style sheet set by name when a page offers alternate titled stylesheets. Browser support is limited. ``` ``` Valid when a linked stylesheet set has the exact title Main Style. ### [refresh](https://zhead.dev/meta/refresh) http-equiv Reloads the current page after a delay or performs a timed redirect. Automatic navigation can confuse users, so a server redirect is usually a better choice. ``` ``` Valid timed redirect syntax. Prefer an HTTP redirect unless the visible delay serves a real purpose. ### [X-UA-Compatible](https://zhead.dev/meta/x-ua-compatible) http-equiv A legacy Internet Explorer pragma whose only conforming value is IE=edge. Current user agents must ignore it, so new pages should omit it. ``` ``` The only value allowed by the HTML standard, kept here for reading legacy markup. Current browsers ignore it.