# Bad value X for attribute “http-equiv” on element “meta”.

> Canonical HTML version: https://rocketvalidator.com/html-validation/bad-value-x-for-attribute-http-equiv-on-element-meta
> Attribution: Rocket Validator (https://rocketvalidator.com)
> License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The `http-equiv` attribute contains a misspelled or invalid value.

The `http-equiv` attribute on the `<meta>` element acts as a pragma directive, simulating an HTTP response header. The HTML specification only allows a specific set of values for this attribute. The valid values include `content-type`, `default-style`, `refresh`, `X-UA-Compatible`, and `content-security-policy`.

The value `X-UA-Compatible` was historically used to tell Internet Explorer to use a specific rendering engine. While it's largely obsolete now that IE is no longer supported, the HTML spec still recognizes it as a valid value.

Common mistakes that trigger this error include:

- Typos like `X-UA-Complatible`, `X-UA-Compatable`, or `X-UA-Compatble`
- Using non-standard values like `imagetoolbar`, `cleartype`, or `cache-control`
- Using values that were valid in older HTML versions but are no longer recognized

## HTML Examples

### ❌ Invalid: misspelled value

```html
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Complatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1" />
```

### ✅ Valid: correctly spelled value

```html
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
```

Note that the `chrome=1` portion referenced Google Chrome Frame, a discontinued plugin. It's safe to remove it along with the entire `<meta>` tag if you no longer need to support Internet Explorer.