The alt attribute

alt provides a text description of an image — for screen readers, for when the image fails to load, and for search engines.

Applies to

img, area, input (type=image)

Values

Free text describing the image's content or function. An empty alt="" is a valid value for purely decorative images.

Example

<img src="chart.png" alt="Sales growth chart for 2026">

Edge cases

alt="" (deliberately empty) is correct for decorative images — that's better than having no alt at all.
A completely missing alt attribute (not empty, but absent) is an accessibility error caught by automated audits.

Accessibility

Don't write "image" or "picture" in alt text — screen readers already announce that it's an img.

Related tools

The <img> tag

The src, alt, loading, and srcset attributes of the <img> tag, with examples.

The src attribute

The src attribute of img, script, video, audio, iframe: the URL of a resource to load.