How to Create Wave Loader using CSS?

Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2025

Creating a Wave Loader using CSS involves designing an animation that mimics wave-like motion, typically used to indicate loading progress. It is achieved through CSS animations, keyframes, and transformations to animate multiple elements sequentially, creating a flowing, wave-like effect.

Approach

HTML Structure: Use a <div> container with multiple <span> elements to represent the wave bars.
Centering the Loader: Position the <div> absolutely in the center using transform: translate(-50%, -50%).
Span Styling: Style each <span> as vertical bars with a fixed width, margin, and background color.
Animation Timing: Apply @keyframes animation for height changes, with staggered delays for each <span>.
Wave Animation: Animate the height from 0 to 50px and back to 0, creating a wave effect.

Example: Here we are following the above-explained approach.

html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,
                 initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Wave Loader</title>
</head>
<style>
    * {
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
    }

    div {
        position: absolute;
        top: 50%;
        left: 50%;
        transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
        display: flex;
        align-items: center;
    }

    span {
        height: 30px;
        width: 7px;
        margin-right: 10px;
        background-color: green;
        animation: loading 1s linear infinite;
    }

    span:nth-child(1) {
        animation-delay: 0.1s;
    }

    span:nth-child(2) {
        animation-delay: 0.2s;
    }

    span:nth-child(3) {
        animation-delay: 0.3s;
    }

    span:nth-child(4) {
        animation-delay: 0.4s;
    }

    span:nth-child(5) {
        animation-delay: 0.5s;
    }

    @keyframes loading {
        0% {
            height: 0;
        }

        25% {
            height: 25px;
        }

        50% {
            height: 50px;
        }

        100% {
            height: 0;
        }

    }
</style>

<body>
    <div>
        <span></span>
        <span></span>
        <span></span>
        <span></span>
        <span></span>
        <span></span>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Output:

How to Create Wave Background using CSS?

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How to Create Wave Loader using CSS?

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