Resistor Color Code

Resistors uses colored bands (or called stripes) to indicate their rated value.

Resistor color code examples by Electronzap
Resistor color code examples by Electronzap
  • The tolerance band is placed to the right. Most resistors will have an actual value that is likely be 1-5% higher or lower than the rated value, called tolerance. Hopefully the tolerance band will have an extra wide gap between it and the other bands. Unfortunately it can often be hard to tell which band is the tolerance band when both it, and the first digit are brown.
    1. The tolerance band is usually gold for beige resistors, to indicate a ±5% tolerance.
    2. The tolerance band is usually brown for blue resistors, to indicate a ±1% tolerance.
  • The first 2 or 3 bands on the left are digits. You simply replace them with the number that goes with that color. 1 (brown) and 0  (black) are the most common digits as 1,000Ω and 10,000Ω resistors are used a lot.
    1. 2 digits for most beige resistors.
    2. 3 digits for most blue resistors.
  • After the digits, and before the tolerance band, comes the multiplier band. You can simply add that many zeros to the digits, or you can multiply the number by the following.
    1. Black:   Times (x) 1   or   no zeros added.
    2. Brown:   x 10   or   one zero added.
    3. Red:   x 100   or   two zeros added.
    4. Orange:   x 1000   or   three zeros added.
    5. Yellow:   x 10,000   or   four zeros added.
    6. Green:   x 100,000   or   five zeros added.
    7. Blue:   x 1,000,000   or   six zeros added.
    8. Violent:   x 10,000,000   or   seven zeros added.
    9. Gray:   x 100,000,000   or   eight zeros added.
    10. White:   x 1,000,000,000   or   nine zeros added.



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