diff --git a/packages/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts b/packages/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
index 19dd52f71e114a..f1075f6fe1cb39 100644
--- a/packages/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,29 @@ describe('css url() references', () => {
     })
   })
 
+  test('image-set with var', async () => {
+    const imageSet = await getBg('.css-image-set-with-var')
+    imageSet.split(', ').forEach((s) => {
+      expect(s).toMatch(assetMatch)
+    })
+  })
+
+  test('image-set with mix', async () => {
+    const imageSet = await getBg('.css-image-set-mix-url-var')
+    imageSet.split(', ').forEach((s) => {
+      expect(s).toMatch(assetMatch)
+    })
+  })
+
+  // not supported in browser now
+  // https://drafts.csswg.org/css-images-4/#image-set-notation
+  // test('image-set with multiple descriptor', async () => {
+  //   const imageSet = await getBg('.css-image-set-multiple-descriptor')
+  //   imageSet.split(', ').forEach((s) => {
+  //     expect(s).toMatch(assetMatch)
+  //   })
+  // })
+
   test('relative in @import', async () => {
     expect(await getBg('.css-url-relative-at-imported')).toMatch(assetMatch)
   })
diff --git a/packages/playground/assets/css/css-url.css b/packages/playground/assets/css/css-url.css
index 8a3f00dee17bd9..9047cd384e7d38 100644
--- a/packages/playground/assets/css/css-url.css
+++ b/packages/playground/assets/css/css-url.css
@@ -26,6 +26,29 @@
   background-size: 10px;
 }
 
+.css-image-set-with-var {
+  --bg-img: url('../nested/asset.png');
+  background-image: -webkit-image-set(var(--bg-img) 1x, var(--bg-img) 2x);
+  background-size: 10px;
+}
+
+.css-image-set-mix-url-var {
+  --bg-img: url('../nested/asset.png');
+  background-image: -webkit-image-set(
+    var(--bg-img) 1x,
+    url('../nested/asset.png') 2x
+  );
+  background-size: 10px;
+}
+
+.css-image-set-multiple-descriptor {
+  background-image: -webkit-image-set(
+    '../nested/asset.png' type('image/png') 1x,
+    '../nested/asset.png' type('image/png') 2x
+  );
+  background-size: 10px;
+}
+
 .css-url-public {
   background: url('/icon.png');
   background-size: 10px;
diff --git a/packages/playground/assets/index.html b/packages/playground/assets/index.html
index 99c2c2fe69ae70..43eed55236abd3 100644
--- a/packages/playground/assets/index.html
+++ b/packages/playground/assets/index.html
@@ -46,6 +46,34 @@ <h2>CSS url references</h2>
     >CSS background with image-set() (relative)</span
   >
 </div>
+<div class="css-image-set-with-var">
+  <span style="background: #fff">
+    CSS background image-set() (relative in var)
+  </span>
+</div>
+<div class="css-image-set-mix-url-var">
+  <span style="background: #fff">
+    CSS background image-set() (mix var and url)
+  </span>
+</div>
+<div class="css-image-set-multiple-descriptor">
+  <span style="background: #fff">
+    CSS background image-set() (with multiple descriptor)
+  </span>
+</div>
+<div
+  style="
+    background-image: -webkit-image-set(
+      './nested/asset.png' type('image/png') 1x,
+      './nested/asset.png' type('image/png') 2x
+    );
+    background-size: 10px;
+  "
+>
+  <span style="background: #fff">
+    CSS background image-set() (with multiple descriptor)
+  </span>
+</div>
 <div class="css-url-relative-at-imported">
   <span style="background: #fff"
     >CSS background (relative from @imported file in different dir)</span
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/css.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/css.ts
index 9ead17822d23a9..04c4ebeea95332 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/css.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/css.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ const commonjsProxyRE = /\?commonjs-proxy/
 const inlineRE = /(\?|&)inline\b/
 const inlineCSSRE = /(\?|&)inline-css\b/
 const usedRE = /(\?|&)used\b/
+const varRE = /^var\(/i
 
 const enum PreprocessLang {
   less = 'less',
@@ -980,7 +981,7 @@ export const cssUrlRE =
 export const cssDataUriRE =
   /(?<=^|[^\w\-\u0080-\uffff])data-uri\(\s*('[^']+'|"[^"]+"|[^'")]+)\s*\)/
 export const importCssRE = /@import ('[^']+\.css'|"[^"]+\.css"|[^'")]+\.css)/
-const cssImageSetRE = /image-set\(([^)]+)\)/
+const cssImageSetRE = /(?<=image-set\()((?:[\w\-]+\([^\)]*\)|[^)])*)(?=\))/
 
 const UrlRewritePostcssPlugin: PostCSS.PluginCreator<{
   replacer: CssUrlReplacer
@@ -1001,7 +1002,9 @@ const UrlRewritePostcssPlugin: PostCSS.PluginCreator<{
             const importer = declaration.source?.input.file
             return opts.replacer(rawUrl, importer)
           }
-          const rewriterToUse = isCssUrl ? rewriteCssUrls : rewriteCssImageSet
+          const rewriterToUse = isCssImageSet
+            ? rewriteCssImageSet
+            : rewriteCssUrls
           promises.push(
             rewriterToUse(declaration.value, replacerForDeclaration).then(
               (url) => {
@@ -1054,11 +1057,15 @@ function rewriteCssImageSet(
   replacer: CssUrlReplacer
 ): Promise<string> {
   return asyncReplace(css, cssImageSetRE, async (match) => {
-    const [matched, rawUrl] = match
-    const url = await processSrcSet(rawUrl, ({ url }) =>
-      doUrlReplace(url, matched, replacer)
-    )
-    return `image-set(${url})`
+    const [, rawUrl] = match
+    const url = await processSrcSet(rawUrl, async ({ url }) => {
+      // the url maybe url(...)
+      if (cssUrlRE.test(url)) {
+        return await rewriteCssUrls(url, replacer)
+      }
+      return await doUrlReplace(url, url, replacer)
+    })
+    return url
   })
 }
 async function doUrlReplace(
@@ -1073,7 +1080,13 @@ async function doUrlReplace(
     wrap = first
     rawUrl = rawUrl.slice(1, -1)
   }
-  if (isExternalUrl(rawUrl) || isDataUrl(rawUrl) || rawUrl.startsWith('#')) {
+
+  if (
+    isExternalUrl(rawUrl) ||
+    isDataUrl(rawUrl) ||
+    rawUrl.startsWith('#') ||
+    varRE.test(rawUrl)
+  ) {
     return matched
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
index e7a20afbdd5ae7..32b783974dacaf 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
@@ -545,6 +545,7 @@ interface ImageCandidate {
   descriptor: string
 }
 const escapedSpaceCharacters = /( |\\t|\\n|\\f|\\r)+/g
+const imageSetUrlRE = /^(?:[\w\-]+\(.*?\)|'.*?'|".*?"|\S*)/
 export async function processSrcSet(
   srcs: string,
   replacer: (arg: ImageCandidate) => Promise<string>
@@ -552,11 +553,13 @@ export async function processSrcSet(
   const imageCandidates: ImageCandidate[] = srcs
     .split(',')
     .map((s) => {
-      const [url, descriptor] = s
-        .replace(escapedSpaceCharacters, ' ')
-        .trim()
-        .split(' ', 2)
-      return { url, descriptor }
+      const src = s.replace(escapedSpaceCharacters, ' ').trim()
+      const [url] = imageSetUrlRE.exec(src) || []
+
+      return {
+        url,
+        descriptor: src?.slice(url.length).trim()
+      }
     })
     .filter(({ url }) => !!url)