<optgroup>: The Option Group element

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <optgroup> HTML element creates a grouping of options within a <select> element.

In customizable <select> elements, the <legend> element is allowed as a child of <optgroup>, to provide a label that is easy to target and style. This replaces any text set in the <optgroup> element's label attribute, and it has the same semantics.

Try it

<label for="dino-select">Choose a dinosaur:</label>
<select id="dino-select">
  <optgroup label="Theropods">
    <option>Tyrannosaurus</option>
    <option>Velociraptor</option>
    <option>Deinonychus</option>
  </optgroup>
  <optgroup label="Sauropods">
    <option>Diplodocus</option>
    <option>Saltasaurus</option>
    <option>Apatosaurus</option>
  </optgroup>
</select>

label {
  display: block;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

Note: Optgroup elements may not be nested.

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

disabled: If this Boolean attribute is set, none of the items in this option group is selectable. Often browsers grey out such control and it won't receive any browsing events, like mouse clicks or focus-related ones.
label: The name of the group of options, which the browser can use when labeling the options in the user interface. This attribute is mandatory if this element is used.

Examples

<select>
  <optgroup label="Group 1">
    <option>Option 1.1</option>
  </optgroup>
  <optgroup label="Group 2">
    <option>Option 2.1</option>
    <option>Option 2.2</option>
  </optgroup>
  <optgroup label="Group 3" disabled>
    <option>Option 3.1</option>
    <option>Option 3.2</option>
    <option>Option 3.3</option>
  </optgroup>
</select>

Result

Technical summary

Content categories	None.
Permitted content	Zero or more `<option>` elements. In customizable select elements, a `<legend>` element is permitted as a child of `<optgroup>`.
Tag omission	The start tag is mandatory. The end tag is optional if this element is immediately followed by another `<optgroup>` element, or if the parent element has no more content.
Permitted parents	A `<select>` element.
Implicit ARIA role	`group`
Permitted ARIA roles	No `role` permitted
DOM interface	`HTMLOptGroupElement`

Specifications

Specification
HTML # the-optgroup-element

Browser compatibility

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`optgroup`	1	12	1	15	≤4	18	4	14	≤3.2	1.0	4.4
`disabled`	1	12	1	15	≤4	18	4	14	≤3.2	1.0	4.4
`label`	1	12	1	15	≤4	18	4	14	≤3.2	1.0	4.4