Resistor Color Code Calculator (4 + 5 + 6 band)
Resistor color code calculator. 4, 5, and 6 band variants per IEC 60062. Resistance, tolerance, range, and temperature coefficient from color bands.
Resistor Color Code
| Tolerance | — |
| Acceptable range | — |
| Temperature coefficient (6-band) | — |
How to use the resistor color code calculator
Identify band count
Look at your resistor. Most through-hole resistors have 4 bands (standard tolerance: ±5% or ±10%). Precision resistors have 5 bands (±1% or tighter). 6-band resistors add a temperature coefficient band. Surface-mount (SMD) resistors use numeric codes, not colors.
Orient the resistor correctly
The tolerance band (usually gold or silver) is typically wider and offset from the digit bands. Hold the resistor with the tolerance band on your RIGHT. Read bands left-to-right starting from band 1.
Set each band's color
Use the dropdowns to set the colors you observe. The 3rd digit band only applies for 5/6-band resistors. The 6-band temperature coefficient is rare on standard parts.
Read the resistance + tolerance
The headline value is the nominal resistance in Ω, kΩ, or MΩ. The tolerance defines the acceptable manufacturing range. A 1 kΩ ±5% resistor actually measures between 950 and 1050 Ω.
Verify with a multimeter
For precision work, measure the actual resistance with a multimeter. Color codes can fade with age or be mis-read in poor lighting. Out-of-tolerance resistors do exist and should be discarded. Always confirm critical circuit values.
Resistor color codes — the universal electronics language
Colour-coded resistors date from the 1930s, when bands were the only marking that fitted on a small body and could be read at any rotation. The code was standardised by the IEC as IEC 62 in 1952 and is now IEC 60062:2016 (Edition 6.0, amended 2019), whose Table 1 is what this calculator decodes: the ten numeral colours black 0, brown 1, red 2, orange 3, yellow 4, green 5, blue 6, violet 7, grey 8, white 9, plus gold, silver and — since 2016 — pink for multipliers and tolerances. Surface-mount parts carry printed numeric codes instead, but through-hole colour-coded resistors are still what you meet in hobby electronics, replacement parts, education kits and repair work.
The mnemonic, and where it stops
Generations of students learned the numeral order through a mnemonic; a common family-friendly one is "Big Brown Rabbits Often Yield Great Big Vocal Groans When Gingerly Slapped" (Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Grey White), and most languages have their own. The mnemonic covers only the ten numeral colours. Gold, silver and the 2016 addition pink appear only as multipliers or tolerances, never in a numeral position — which is what makes them a reliable orientation cue.
IEC 60062:2016 puts the whole code in one table. The same twelve colours carry four meanings — numeral, multiplier, tolerance, temperature coefficient — and the absence of a band is itself a code: a resistor with no tolerance band is ±20%.
SMD codes vs color bands
Surface-mount (SMD) resistors are too small for color bands. Instead they use numeric codes: 3-digit (e.g. "102" = 10 × 10² = 1000 Ω = 1 kΩ), 4-digit (e.g. "1002" = 100 × 10² = 10.0 kΩ for higher precision), or alphanumeric EIA-96 codes for very small parts. This calculator decodes colour bands only; the numeric SMD codes follow the same numeral-and-multiplier logic but are read as printed digits.
Tolerance + precision grades
IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 assigns the tolerance colours this calculator offers: gold ±5%, silver ±10%, brown ±1%, red ±2%, green ±0.5%, blue ±0.25%, violet ±0.1%, and no band at all for ±20%. The 2016 edition also defines orange ±0.05%, yellow ±0.02% and grey ±0.01% for precision parts; those three are not in this calculator's tolerance list. Tolerance pairs with the preferred-value series of IEC 60063:2015 — E6 for ±20%, E12 for ±10%, E24 for ±5%, E48 for ±2%, E96 for ±1%, E192 for ±0.5% and tighter — so a decoded value that is not in the series for its tolerance (4.8 kΩ at ±5%, say, where E24 has 4.7 kΩ) usually means a misread band.
Rainbow order, gold and silver doing double duty, and what a missing band means
IEC 60062 is the code decoded here — first issued as IEC 62 in 1952, current edition IEC 60062:2016 (amended 2019).
4-band (standard): digit, digit, multiplier, tolerance. Most common configuration.
5-band (precision): adds a third digit. Used for ±1% and tighter tolerance resistors.
6-band: adds the temperature coefficient in ppm/K (IEC writes it ×10⁻⁶/K) — brown 100, red 50, yellow 25, orange 15, blue 10, violet 5.
Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White = 0-9.
Gold/silver are multipliers (×0.1, ×0.01) AND tolerances (±5%, ±10%).
Read with tolerance band on the right. Tolerance band typically wider + offset.
IEC 60062:2016 added pink as a ×0.001 multiplier for milliohm parts; this calculator's multiplier list stops at silver (×0.01).
E24 (±5%) has 24 values per decade and E96 (±1%) has 96 — the preferred-number series of IEC 60063:2015.
Color codes can fade with age. Always verify critical values with a multimeter.
Frequently asked questions
Tolerance band (usually gold/silver) on the right. Read left to right starting from band 1. The tolerance band is typically wider and slightly offset from the digit bands — this is the visual cue for orientation.
Use bright daylight or a desk lamp. Red vs brown is hardest — brown is darker, red more saturated. Orange vs red/yellow: orange is in the middle. When uncertain, measure with a multimeter (the truth is in the actual resistance).
Yes. IEC 60062:2016 clause 3.3.1 marks a ±20% resistor with three bands — two numerals and a multiplier — and the absence of a fourth band is the tolerance. You meet them on older carbon-composition parts. Decode one here in 4-band mode for the value, and read the tolerance as ±20% yourself: the tolerance list on this page has no "no band" entry.
The sixth band gives the temperature coefficient of resistance in ppm/K — how far the resistance moves per kelvin. IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 runs from black 250 and brown 100 ppm/K at the coarse end to violet 5 and grey 1 ppm/K at the fine end; this calculator offers brown, red, orange, yellow, blue and violet. It matters where temperature swings and stability is the point — measurement, instrumentation, reference dividers.
Yes — SMD resistors use numeric codes printed on top. 3-digit: first 2 digits × 10^(3rd digit). "473" = 47 × 10³ = 47000 Ω = 47 kΩ. 4-digit (precision): first 3 digits × 10^(4th digit). "4702" = 470 × 10² = 47.0 kΩ. EIA-96 codes use alphanumeric (e.g. "20D" = 162 × 10² = 16.2 kΩ).
Three possibilities: (1) Color misread — bright daylight, retry. (2) Reading backwards — confirm tolerance band is on right. (3) Within tolerance — a 1 kΩ ±5% resistor measuring 1.02 kΩ is correct. If measurement is well outside band tolerance, the resistor may be damaged or counterfeit.
No. It decodes exactly the bands you set, so it will report 4.8 kΩ without complaint. Manufacturers make values from the IEC 60063:2015 preferred series for the tolerance in question — E24 for ±5%, E96 for ±1% — so a decoded value outside that series usually means one band was misread. Check the series before you assume an odd part.
Standard resistor value series with logarithmic spacing matched to tolerance. E6 (±20%): 6 values per decade — 1.0, 1.5, 2.2, 3.3, 4.7, 6.8. E12 (±10%): 12 values. E24 (±5%): 24 values. E48 (±2%), E96 (±1%), E192 (±0.5%): increasingly dense. The system ensures adjacent values don't overlap within tolerance.
Historically yes, today rarely. Capacitor color codes were used on tubular capacitors decades ago. Inductor color codes exist for some axial inductors. Modern capacitors + inductors typically use numeric codes (like SMD resistors) or printed values. The 10-color digit system is the same logic.
IEC 60062:2016, Marking codes for resistors and capacitors — Table 1 is the colour code — and IEC 60063:2015, Preferred number series for resistors and capacitors, both from the IEC webstore. For the engineering around them, Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics, 3rd edition (2015), chapter 1.
Method & sources
How it computes
Decodes 4-, 5- and 6-band resistor colour codes per IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 (Code colour prescriptions): two or three significant-numeral bands × a multiplier band, a tolerance band, and on 6-band parts a temperature-coefficient band in ppm/K (10⁻⁶/K). A resistor with no tolerance band is read as ±20%, per clause 3.3.1, and the reported range is nominal × (1 ± tolerance).
What this tool implements
- IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 colours — numerals black 0 … white 9; multipliers ×1 to ×10⁹ plus gold ×0.1 and silver ×0.01; tolerances brown ±1%, red ±2%, green ±0.5%, blue ±0.25%, violet ±0.1%, gold ±5%, silver ±10%, none ±20%; TCR black 250, brown 100, red 50, orange 15, yellow 25, blue 10, violet 5 ppm/K.
- Deliberately not offered in the selectors, though defined in IEC 60062:2016 Table 1: pink ×10⁻³ multiplier; orange ±0.05%, yellow ±0.02% and grey ±0.01% tolerances; green 20 and grey 1 ppm/K TCR.
- No snapping to IEC 60063:2015 preferred values (E6–E192) — the page decodes the bands as set; the E-series is referenced in the prose as a plausibility check only.
- Reading direction per the standard: the tolerance band is the single wider band and is read last.
Sources
- IEC 60062:2016. Marking codes for resistors and capacitors. Edition 6.0. Geneva: International Electrotechnical Commission; 2016-07 (consolidated with AMD1:2019 as IEC 60062:2016+AMD1:2019 CSV, Edition 6.1). Table 1, Code colour prescriptions; clause 3.3.1. https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/25395
- IEC 60062:2016 sample pages (Table 1 and clause 3.3 visible), iTeh standards preview. https://cdn.standards.iteh.ai/samples/20940/4ae014b83a7c49adb888d…
- IEC 60063:2015. Preferred number series for resistors and capacitors. Edition 3.0. Geneva: International Electrotechnical Commission; 2015-03. https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/22011
What can make this go out of date
- None at runtime. IEC 60062:2016 and IEC 60063:2015 both carry an IEC stability date of 2033; a new edition of IEC 60062 could add or re-assign colour meanings, as the 2016 edition did with pink and the precision tolerances.
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