MUI Base (Headless/Unstyled) Components

What is MUI Base?

MUI Base (@mui/base) is a library of headless (unstyled) React components and hooks. Unlike Material UI, which ships with Material Design styles baked in, MUI Base provides only the logic, state management, accessibility, and keyboard interactions -- zero CSS. You bring your own styles using Tailwind, CSS Modules, styled-components, vanilla CSS, or any approach you prefer.

npm install @mui/base
# or
pnpm add @mui/base

Key characteristics:

• Zero default styles -- components render semantic HTML with no class names or CSS
• Hooks-first API -- every component has a corresponding hook (useButton, useInput, etc.) for maximum flexibility
• WAI-ARIA compliant -- accessibility is handled internally (focus management, keyboard navigation, ARIA attributes)
• Small bundle -- no theme provider, no emotion/styled-engine dependency
• Composable -- hooks return prop-getters (getRootProps, getInputProps) that you spread onto your own elements