Decreasing height of bootstrap 3.0 navbar

After spending few hours, adding the following css class fixed my issue.

Work with Bootstrap 3.0.*

.tnav .navbar .container { height: 28px; }

Work with Bootstrap 3.3.4

.navbar-nav > li > a, .navbar-brand {
    padding-top:4px !important; 
    padding-bottom:0 !important;
    height: 28px;
}
.navbar {min-height:28px !important;}

Update Complete code to customize and decrease height of navbar with screenshot.

CSS:

/* navbar */
.navbar-primary .navbar { background:#9f58b5; border-bottom:none; }
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav > li > a {color: #501762;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav > li > a:hover {color: #fff; background-color: #8e49a3;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav .active > a,.navbar .nav .active > a:hover {color: #fff; background-color: #501762;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav li > a .caret, .tnav .navbar .nav li > a:hover .caret {border-top-color: #fff;border-bottom-color: #fff;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav > li.dropdown.open.active > a:hover {}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav > li.dropdown.open > a {color: #fff;background-color: #9f58b5;border-color: #fff;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav > li.dropdown.open.active > a:hover .caret, .tnav .navbar .nav > li.dropdown.open > a .caret {border-top-color: #fff;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .navbar-brand {color:#fff;}
.navbar-primary .navbar .nav.pull-right {margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0;}
.navbar-xs .navbar-primary .navbar { min-height:28px; height: 28px; }
.navbar-xs .navbar-primary .navbar .navbar-brand{ padding: 0px 12px;font-size: 16px;line-height: 28px; }
.navbar-xs .navbar-primary .navbar .navbar-nav > li > a {  padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 28px; }
.navbar-sm .navbar-primary .navbar { min-height:40px; height: 40px; }
.navbar-sm .navbar-primary .navbar .navbar-brand{ padding: 0px 12px;font-size: 16px;line-height: 40px; }
.navbar-sm .navbar-primary .navbar .navbar-nav > li > a {  padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 40px; }

Usage Code:

<div class="navbar-xs">
   <div class="navbar-primary">
       <nav class="navbar navbar-static-top" role="navigation">
          <!-- Brand and toggle get grouped for better mobile display -->
          <div class="navbar-header">
              <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#bs-example-navbar-collapse-8">
                 <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
                 <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                 <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                 <span class="icon-bar"></span>
              </button>
              <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Brand</a>
          </div>
          <!-- Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling -->
          <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="bs-example-navbar-collapse-8">
              <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
                  <li><a href="#">Link</a></li>
                   <li><a href="#">Link</a></li>
              </ul>
          </div><!-- /.navbar-collapse -->
      </nav>
  </div>
</div>

Working solution:

Bootstrap 3.0 by default has a 15px padding on top and bottom, so we just need to override it!

For example:

.navbar-nav > li > a {padding-top:10px !important; padding-bottom:10px !important;}
.navbar {min-height:40px !important}

Simply override the min-height set in .navbar like so:

.navbar{
  min-height:20px; //* or whatever height you require
}

Altering an elements height to something smaller than the min-height won't make a difference...

if you are using the less source, there should be a variable for the navbar height in the variables.less file. If you are not using the source, then you can customize it using the customize utilty that bootstrap's site provides. And then you can downloaded it and include it in your project. The variable you are looking for is: @navbar-height