Tailwind CSS 4.0: the CSS-first reset
Tailwind CSS 4.0 shipped on 22 January 2025 and reworked the framework around performance, CSS-native configuration, and modern platform primitives.
Tailwind 4.0 is one of the rare frontend releases that genuinely changes how teams set up projects. It is a foundational release, not just a feature bundle.
The big moves are the new high-performance engine, CSS-first configuration, zero-config setup, automatic content detection, native theme variables, a first-party Vite plugin, built-in import support, and a large batch of new utilities like container queries and 3D transforms.
The deeper story is that Tailwind stopped pretending JavaScript config was the ideal abstraction. Version 4 brings the framework much closer to the platform and, in doing so, makes it both faster and simpler.