How do you read a 4-band resistor color code?

Hold the resistor so the tolerance band (usually gold or silver, and set slightly apart) is on the right. Read left to right: the first two bands are the significant digits, the third is the multiplier (a power of ten), and the fourth is the tolerance. For brown-black-red-gold: 1, 0, ×100 = 1,000 Ω = 1 kΩ ±5%.

What is the color code for a 10k ohm resistor?

A 10 kΩ 4-band resistor is brown-black-orange-gold: brown = 1, black = 0, orange = ×1,000, so 10 × 1,000 = 10,000 Ω, with gold for ±5%. On a 5-band resistor it becomes brown-black-black-red (1, 0, 0, ×100) with a tolerance band such as brown for ±1%.

What does the gold band on a resistor mean?

Gold has two roles depending on its position. As the last (tolerance) band it means ±5%. As a multiplier band it means ×0.1, used for sub-10-ohm resistors. Silver works the same way: ±10% as a tolerance band, or ×0.01 as a multiplier. Their position tells you which meaning applies.

What is the difference between a 4-band and 5-band resistor?

A 4-band resistor uses two significant-digit bands, giving two-figure precision (for example 47 × multiplier). A 5-band resistor adds a third digit band for three-figure precision (for example 470 × multiplier), so it can represent tighter, more exact values. 5-band resistors are common in precision circuits with ±1% or better tolerance.

How do you find the tolerance of a resistor from its colors?

The tolerance is the last band. Brown = ±1%, red = ±2%, green = ±0.5%, blue = ±0.25%, violet = ±0.1%, grey = ±0.05%, gold = ±5%, silver = ±10%, and no band = ±20%. Tolerance is the maximum percentage the real resistance may differ from the nominal printed value.

What does the 6th band on a resistor mean?

The sixth band is the temperature coefficient (ppm/K) — how much the resistance changes per degree Celsius. Brown = 100, red = 50, orange = 15, yellow = 25, blue = 10, and violet = 5 ppm/K. Lower values mean the resistor is more stable across temperature, which matters in precision and instrumentation circuits.

Which way round do you read a resistor?

Read so the tolerance band is on the right. Gold and silver only appear as tolerance or multiplier bands, so a gold or silver band almost always marks the right-hand end. If both ends look ambiguous, the tolerance band usually sits a little further from the others, leaving a visible gap.

Does this calculator work for capacitors or SMD resistors?

No. This tool covers axial resistors with painted color bands under IEC 60062. Capacitors use a different digit and tolerance convention, and surface-mount (SMD) resistors use printed numeric codes such as 472 or 4R7 rather than colors. Those are separate decoding schemes and are out of scope here.

Electronics · Education

Resistor Color Code Calculator — 4, 5 & 6 Band

Click the bands on a resistor to read its resistance, tolerance and temperature coefficient — or enter a value to get the band colors. Follows the IEC 60062:2016 international standard. Free, no signup, sources cited below.

By Induwara Ashinsana— Executive Director, Ryzera TechnologiesUpdated Jul 13, 2026

Resistor color code4 · 5 · 6 band

Bands

Quick presets

Band 1 — 1st digitBrown

Band 2 — 2nd digitBlack

Multiplier bandRed · ×100

Tolerance bandGold · ±5%

Resistance

1 kΩ

Tolerance

±5%

Value range

950 Ω – 1.05 kΩ

How this value is built

Step	Value
Significant figures	10
Multiplier (Red)	×100
Tolerance	±5%
Resistance	1 kΩ

Mappings follow IEC 60062:2016. Sources are cited in full below the tool.

How it works

A resistor's value is printed as colored bands so it can be read from any angle. Each color maps to a number, and the calculator applies the mapping defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission in IEC 60062:2016 (the same scheme as the US EIA/ANSI RS-279 code). Read the resistor with the tolerance band on the right, then work left to right.

Significant digits.Each digit color maps to a value: black 0, brown 1, red 2, orange 3, yellow 4, green 5, blue 6, violet 7, grey 8, white 9. A 4-band resistor uses the first two bands, so the significant number S = 10·d1 + d2; a 5- or 6-band resistor adds a third digit, so S = 100·d1 + 10·d2 + d3.
Multiplier.The next band is a power of ten: black ×1, brown ×10, red ×100, orange ×1k, yellow ×10k, green ×100k, blue ×1M, violet ×10M, grey ×100M, white ×1G, and the two fractional cases gold ×0.1 and silver ×0.01 for sub-10-ohm parts.
Resistance. R = S × multiplier ohms. The result is shown in engineering notation (Ω, kΩ, MΩ, GΩ).
Tolerance.The tolerance band gives the allowed spread: brown ±1%, red ±2%, green ±0.5%, blue ±0.25%, violet ±0.1%, grey ±0.05%, gold ±5%, silver ±10%, and no band ±20%. The value range is R·(1 − tol) to R·(1 + tol).
Temperature coefficient (6-band).The sixth band gives ppm/K — brown 100, red 50, orange 15, yellow 25, blue 10, violet 5 — how much resistance drifts per degree.

In reverse mode the calculator runs this backwards: it normalises your target value into significant figures and a power of ten, picks the digit and multiplier colors that reproduce it, and attaches the tolerance you choose. If the value needs more significant figures than the band count allows, it snaps to the nearest standard value and flags it. Every reverse result is checked by decoding the chosen bands again — a decode → encode → decode round-trip that must return the same resistance to be shown.

Worked examples

4-band · Brown-Black-Red-Gold

1 kΩ ±5%

Digits: Brown = 1, Black = 0 → S = 10
Multiplier: Red = ×100
R = 10 × 100 = 1,000 Ω = 1 kΩ
Tolerance: Gold = ±5% → range 950 Ω – 1,050 Ω

5-band · Yellow-Violet-Black-Red-Brown

47 kΩ ±1%

Digits: Yellow = 4, Violet = 7, Black = 0 → S = 470
Multiplier: Red = ×100
R = 470 × 100 = 47,000 Ω = 47 kΩ
Tolerance: Brown = ±1% → range 46.53 kΩ – 47.47 kΩ

Reverse · 4.7 kΩ ±5% on a 4-band

Yellow-Violet-Red-Gold

4,700 Ω = 47 × 100
Digits 4, 7 → Yellow, Violet
Multiplier ×100 → Red; tolerance ±5% → Gold
Re-decoding Yellow-Violet-Red-Gold returns 4.7 kΩ ✓

6-band · Orange-Orange-Black-Brown-Brown-Red

3.3 kΩ ±1%, 50 ppm/K

Digits: Orange = 3, Orange = 3, Black = 0 → S = 330
Multiplier: Brown = ×10 → R = 330 × 10 = 3,300 Ω = 3.3 kΩ
Tolerance: Brown = ±1% → range 3,267 Ω – 3,333 Ω
Temp. coefficient: Red = 50 ppm/K

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references

The color-to-value tables on this page were transcribed from IEC 60062:2016 and last cross-checked on 2026-07-13. These mappings are a fixed engineering standard, so they do not change between revisions.

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