CSS Properties

background-position

CSS property · 19 supported, 0 partial, 2 unsupported across 21 clients

background-position is safe in 19 of 21 email clients as of Sep 2, 2026, the holdouts are Outlook (New), Outlook Classic.

7/7 webmail, 4/6 desktop, 8/8 mobile clients support background-position fully.
Unsupported in Outlook (New), Outlook Classic.
Outlook Classic (Word engine, supported to at least 2029) does not fully support background-position, and its replacement changes little here; see the deprecation diff.
Across all clients, only 6 of 298 tracked HTML/CSS features render identically everywhere.

Source: caniemail.com (MIT), via the Emailens engine. Last tested upstream Feb 28, 2019, synced by Emailens Sep 2, 2026.

Client Support

Client	Category	Engine	Support
Gmail	webmail	Gmail Web	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Gmail Android	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Gmail iOS	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Outlook 365	webmail	Outlook Web	Supported
Outlook (New)	desktop	Outlook Web	Unsupported^{See caveat 2}
Outlook Classic	desktop	Microsoft Word	Unsupported
Outlook iOS	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook Android	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook for Mac	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail iOS	mobile	WebKit	Supported
Yahoo Mail	webmail	Yahoo	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Yahoo Mail Android	mobile	Yahoo	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Yahoo Mail iOS	mobile	Yahoo	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Samsung Mail	mobile	Samsung	Supported
Thunderbird	desktop	Gecko	Supported
HEY Mail	webmail	WebKit	Supported
Proton Mail	webmail	Proton	Supported
AOL Mail	webmail	AOL	Supported^{See caveat 1}
Fastmail	webmail	Fastmail	Supported
Superhuman	desktop	Blink	Supported

Documented caveats (2)

1.Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, AOL Mail: Partial. Does not support multiple values. The comma between two values is removed.
2.Outlook (New): Background images position can be used in VML with the position attribute. See VML documentation.

Caveats recorded by caniemail.com (MIT) and carried verbatim, one entry per wording rather than per client.

Client-by-client behaviour for background-position

Fully supports background-position (19): Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, Outlook 365, Outlook iOS, Outlook Android, Outlook for Mac, Apple Mail, Apple Mail iOS, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, Samsung Mail, Thunderbird, HEY Mail, Proton Mail, AOL Mail, Fastmail, Superhuman.

No support (2): Outlook (New), Outlook Classic. Plan fallbacks for these clients before relying on background-position in production sends.

Fixes & Workarounds

Outlook (New)

Unsupported

Not supported in many clients. Use VML for positioning.

Outlook Classic

Unsupported

Not supported in many clients. Use VML for positioning.

Related Features

!important accent-color align-items animation aspect-ratio backdrop-filter background background-blend-mode

Check your own HTML for background-position

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Test your background-position layout across 21 email clients

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Last tested upstream: Feb 28, 2019 · Last synced by Emailens: Sep 2, 2026

caniemail.com (MIT) records Feb 28, 2019 as the last time background-position was tested in a real client, 7 years before this sync. Syncing copies that result forward, it does not re-test it. Carried in @emailens/engine data v0.12.2.