How to hide collapsible Bootstrap navbar on click

Update 2021 – Bootstrap 5 (beta)

Use javascript to add a click event listener on the menu items to close the Collapse navbar..

const navLinks = document.querySelectorAll('.nav-item')
const menuToggle = document.getElementById('navbarSupportedContent')
const bsCollapse = new bootstrap.Collapse(menuToggle)
navLinks.forEach((l) => {
    l.addEventListener('click', () => { bsCollapse.toggle() })
})

BS5 demo javascript method

Or, Use the data-bs-toggle and data-bs-target data attributes in the markup on each link to toggle the Collapse navbar…

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
    <div class="container">
        <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
        <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
            <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
        </button>
        <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
            <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto">
                <li class="nav-item active">
                    <a class="nav-link" href="#" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target=".navbar-collapse.show">Home</a>
                </li>
                <li class="nav-item">
                    <a class="nav-link" href="#" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target=".navbar-collapse.show">Link</a>
                </li>
                <li class="nav-item">
                    <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target=".navbar-collapse.show">Disabled</a>
                </li>
            </ul>
            <form class="d-flex my-2 my-lg-0">
                <input class="form-control me-sm-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
                <button class="btn btn-outline-success my-2 my-sm-0" type="submit">Search</button>
            </form>
        </div>
    </div>
</nav>

BS5 demo data-attributes method

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Update 2019 – Bootstrap 4

The navbar has changed, but the “close after click” method is still the same:

BS4 demo jQuery method
BS4 demo data-toggle method

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Bootstrap 3 (original answer)

You can add the collapse component to the links like this..

<ul class="navbar-nav mr-auto">
     <li class="nav-item active">
         <a class="nav-link" href="#home" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse.show">Home <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></a>
     </li>
     <li class="nav-item">
         <a class="nav-link" href="#about-us" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse.show">About</a>
     </li>
     <li class="nav-item">
         <a class="nav-link" href="#pricing" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse.show">Pricing</a>
     </li>
 </ul>

BS3 demo using ‘data-toggle’ method

Or, (perhaps a better way) use jQuery like this..

$('.navbar-nav>li>a').on('click', function(){
    $('.navbar-collapse').collapse('hide');
});

BS3 demo using jQuery method