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Next.js › Styling in Next.js (CSS Modules, Tailwind & Styled Components)

How do you set up and use Tailwind CSS in a Next.js project?

Beginner

Answer

You can choose to include Tailwind CSS when creating your project with create-next-app, or install and configure it manually afterward, and once set up, you apply pre-built utility classes directly in your JSX to style elements without writing separate CSS files at all.
// tailwind.config.js is generated automatically

export default function Card() {
  return (
    <div className="rounded-lg shadow-md p-4 bg-white">
      <h2 className="text-xl font-bold">Card Title</h2>
    </div>
  );
}
Real-world example A team builds an entire marketing website's styling using only Tailwind's utility classes directly in their JSX, avoiding the need to maintain separate CSS files for most of their components.

Common follow-ups: What are the main advantages of utility first CSS compared to writing custom CSS?;How do you customize Tailwind's default colors and spacing scale?