Wikipedia:Dark mode

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcuts

A light-on-dark color scheme (dark mode, night mode) is available to Wikipedia's smartphone apps and website (for users using the default skins) since July 2024.

In addition to this there is a gadget on English Wikipedia, and various volunteer-written CSS files that allow customization for logged-in users.

Options for logged-in users

For default skins

Mobile users (users of the Minerva skin) can visit the settings page, and select "dark" from the list of color options.^[1]
Users of the Vector 2022 skin can enable dark mode by selecting it in the "Appearance" section of preferences, setting the option to "dark".

Gadgets

There are two Gadgets that can be enabled in Preferences:

Wikipedia:Dark mode (gadget) - Under the "Appearance" section of the "Gadgets" tab, select the checkbox for "Dark mode toggle". Once checked, dark mode is available to toggle in the preferences portlet, located in the Upper Right-Hand corner of the page. The link to click is named "Dark mode", and is to the left of the "Watchlist" link.
MediaWiki:Gadget-Blackskin.css - Also found under the "Appearance" section of the "Gadgets" tab, is the checkbox with text: "Use a black background with green text".

CSS

Apart from gadgets, an alternative way to get a dark mode is adding custom CSS to your user style page(s). This is more complex than activating a gadget, but more flexible, allowing, for example: custom colors, custom fonts, or hiding unused UI elements. Help:User style describes the process of adding custom CSS in general. For dark mode-specific CSS, a number of options are available including:

WikimediaUI Dark mode – the css powering the dark mode gadget usable as a standalone style without the gadget, stable version from April 25, 2020, by User:AHollender (WMF), User:Volker E. (WMF), User:MusikAnimal
Darklands dark theme – a low contrast dark mode in development July 2023, tested with Vector legacy only, by User:Dialectric
DavidL's DarkTheme – in development May 2023, by User:DavidL
Tollens' dark theme – an easily-customizable dark theme by User:Tollens
wikipedia-userstyle-dark-minimum by User:Vitaly Zdanevich

Dialectric's darklands theme
DavidL's thème sombre
Tollens' dark theme
Dark minimal theme from Vitaly Zdanevich

Compatibility table
	Timeless	Vector (2022)	Vector old (2010)	MinervaNeue	MonoBook
WikimediaUI Dark mode	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Darklands dark theme	N	N	Y	N	Y
DavidL's DarkTheme	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Tollens' dark theme	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Vitaly Zdanevich's dark theme	N	N	Y	N	N

Options for unregistered users

Skins

A dark mode feature is available since July 2024 as part of the mw:Reading/Web/Accessibility_for_reading project for Vector 2022 and Minerva skins:

To enable on mobile, click settings and select dark theme.
On desktop click the radio button on the far side of the screen or under the spectacles icon in the top right.

Browser extensions

There are browser extensions for popular browsers that offer a Wikipedia-specific dark mode, and browser extensions that allow you to set custom CSS for a given domain, which could be used with the CSS available above. However, all browser extensions need to be carefully screened for security issues. Some inject advertising, and customization may be more difficult than editing a single CSS file.

There are several add-on/extension offerings on Firefox which work well. The most popular is Dark Mode for Wikipedia which uses only a single css style sheet to enable dark mode on Wikipedia. Do not install any extension or add-on that you don't trust.

Browser settings

If you use Chrome, there is also a built-in experimental/beta setting to force dark mode, set through chrome://flags/ with the description "Force Dark Mode for Web Contents - Automatically render all web contents using a dark theme". This is provided by Chrome's development team, so security should not be a concern, but this will render all web pages in dark mode. This feature is also available in Microsoft Edge, through the edge://flags/ menu.