A measurement of the dijet production cross section is reported based on proton–proton collision data collected in 2016 at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 36.3$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-$$k_{\textrm{T}} $$algorithm for distance parameters of $$R=0.4$$and 0.8. Cross sections are measured double-differentially (2D) as a function of the largest absolute rapidity $$|y |_{\text {max}} $$of the two jets with the highest transverse momenta $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$and their invariant mass $$m_{1,2} $$, and triple-differentially (3D) as a function of the rapidity separation $$y^{*} $$, the total boost $$y_{\text {b}} $$, and either $$m_{1,2} $$or the average $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$of the two jets. The cross sections are unfolded to correct for detector effects and are compared with fixed-order calculations derived at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The impact of the measurements on the parton distribution functions and the strong coupling constant at the mass of the $${\text {Z}} $$boson is investigated, yielding a value of $$\alpha _\textrm{S} (m_{{\text {Z}}}) =0.1179\pm 0.0019$$.