Pagination

Pagination helps users move between a large number of items that are distributed across multiple screens in scenarios where there are too many results to show at once. Pagination is useful for table listings, search results, and directories.

Best practices

  • Wherever possible, display the number of individual results available across all pages.
  • Ensure the clickable elements are large and easy for the user to select the correct option without error.
  • Clearly indicate the page the user is on by using the active state.
  • Next and previous controls should be disabled if users can’t move in the respective direction.
  • Avoid confusing patterns that use double arrows as ‘first’ and ‘last’ options.
  • Ensure single arrows for previous and next are accompanied by ‘previous’ and ‘next’ labels.

Do: Use button labels

Don't: Use icon buttons without labels

How it works

We use a large block of connected links for our pagination, making links hard to miss and easily scalable—all while providing large hit areas. Pagination is built with list HTML elements so screen readers can announce the number of available links. Use a wrapping <nav> element to identify it as a navigation section to screen readers and other assistive technologies.

In addition, as pages likely have more than one such navigation section, it’s advisable to provide a descriptive aria-label for the <nav> to reflect its purpose. For example, if the pagination component is used to navigate between a set of search results, an appropriate label could be aria-label="Search results pages".

<nav aria-label="Page navigation example">
  <ul class="pagination">
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">1</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">2</a></li>
    <li><span class="page-indicator">...</span></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">9</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">10</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

Disabled and active states

Pagination links are customizable for different circumstances. Use .disabled for links that appear un-clickable and .active to indicate the current page.

While the .disabled class uses pointer-events: none to try to disable the link functionality of <a>s, that CSS property is not yet standardized and doesn’t account for keyboard navigation. As such, you should always add tabindex="-1" on disabled links and use custom JavaScript to fully disable their functionality.

<nav aria-label="...">
  <ul class="pagination">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <a class="page-link" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item active" aria-current="page">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">1 <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">2</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">3</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>

You can optionally swap out active or disabled anchors for <span>, or omit the anchor in the case of the prev/next arrows, to remove click functionality and prevent keyboard focus while retaining intended styles.

<nav aria-label="...">
  <ul class="pagination">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <span class="page-link"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</span>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item active" aria-current="page">
      <span class="page-link">
        1
        <span class="sr-only">(current)</span>
      </span>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">2</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">3</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>

Sizing

Add .pagination-lg or .pagination-sm for additional sizes.

<nav aria-label="...">
  <ul class="pagination pagination-lg">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <a class="page-link" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item active" aria-current="page">
      <span class="page-link">
        1
        <span class="sr-only">(current)</span>
      </span>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">2</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">3</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>
<nav aria-label="...">
  <ul class="pagination pagination-sm">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <a class="page-link" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item active" aria-current="page">
      <span class="page-link">
        1
        <span class="sr-only">(current)</span>
      </span>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">2</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">3</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

Alignment

Change the alignment of pagination components with flexbox utilities.

<nav aria-label="Page navigation example">
  <ul class="pagination justify-content-center">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <a class="page-link" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item" class="page-item active" aria-current="page"><a class="page-link" href="#">1 <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">2</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">3</a></li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>
<nav aria-label="Page navigation example">
  <ul class="pagination justify-content-end">
    <li class="page-item disabled">
      <a class="page-link" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true"><i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-left"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Previous</a>
    </li>
    <li class="page-item" class="page-item active" aria-current="page"><a class="page-link" href="#">1 <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">2</a></li>
    <li class="page-item"><a class="page-link" href="#">3</a></li>
    <li class="page-item">
      <a class="page-link" href="#">Next&nbsp;&nbsp;<i aria-hidden="true" class="far fa-angle-right"></i></a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>