How do I know which end to read from?

Read from the end where the bands are grouped closer together. The tolerance band (gold, silver, or brown) usually sits alone at the far end, so orient the resistor with that band on the right and read left to right.

What is the difference between 4, 5, and 6 band resistors?

A 4-band resistor uses two significant-figure bands, a multiplier, and a tolerance band. A 5-band adds a third significant figure for higher precision. A 6-band adds a temperature coefficient (ppm/°C) band after the tolerance.

What do gold and silver multiplier bands mean?

Gold as a multiplier means times 0.1 and silver means times 0.01, giving sub-ohm resistances. As a tolerance band, gold means plus or minus 5 percent and silver means plus or minus 10 percent.

Why does my measured value differ from the decoded one?

Real resistors vary within their tolerance band. A 1k resistor with 5 percent tolerance can legitimately measure anywhere from 950 to 1050 ohms. Temperature and age also shift the value slightly. Use a meter to confirm critical values.

Are black bands always zero?

As a significant-figure digit, black is 0. As a multiplier, black means times 1 (10 to the power of 0). Black is never used as a tolerance band because zero tolerance is not manufacturable.

What is the Resistor Color Code Chart?

Decode 4-band, 5-band, and 6-band resistor color codes into resistance, tolerance, and temperature coefficient. Pick the color of each band and read the exact ohm value with engineering-notation formatting. Runs in your browser. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Resistor Color Code Chart

Name: Resistor Color Code Chart
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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The color bands printed on a resistor encode its resistance, tolerance, and sometimes its temperature coefficient. This chart decodes 4-band, 5-band, and 6-band resistors so you can read any resistor without memorizing the table.

How it works

Each band maps to a number using the standard color code:

Black=0  Brown=1  Red=2  Orange=3  Yellow=4
Green=5  Blue=6   Violet=7  Gray=8  White=9

For a 4-band resistor the value is:

(digit1 · 10 + digit2) × multiplier

A 5-band resistor adds a third significant digit:

(digit1 · 100 + digit2 · 10 + digit3) × multiplier

The multiplier band is 10^n for the colors above, with gold = ×0.1 and silver = ×0.01. The next band is the tolerance (e.g. brown ±1%, gold ±5%). A 6-band resistor adds a final temperature-coefficient band in ppm/°C.

Worked examples

Example 1 — 4-band: Brown-Black-Red-Gold

Band	Color	Value
1st digit	Brown	1
2nd digit	Black	0
Multiplier	Red	×100
Tolerance	Gold	±5%

Result: (1×10 + 0) × 100 = 1,000 Ω = 1 kΩ ±5%. This is the classic “1 kilohm” pull-up resistor you will find in almost every digital circuit.

Example 2 — 5-band precision: Brown-Black-Black-Brown-Brown

Band	Color	Value
1st digit	Brown	1
2nd digit	Black	0
3rd digit	Black	0
Multiplier	Brown	×10
Tolerance	Brown	±1%

Result: (1×100 + 0×10 + 0) × 10 = 1,000 Ω = 1 kΩ ±1%. The extra band gives a tighter 1% tolerance.

Example 3 — Sub-ohm multiplier: Orange-Orange-Gold-Gold

Gold in the multiplier position means ×0.1, so Orange-Orange-Gold-Gold decodes as 33 × 0.1 = 3.3 Ω ±5%. These low-value resistors appear in current-sensing applications.

Identifying the reading direction

The tolerance band (gold, silver, or brown) is usually spaced slightly apart from the rest — that end goes on the right.
If both ends have similar spacing, check the first band: the sequence of values you read should produce a standard E24 or E96 series value (round numbers like 100, 220, 470, 1K, 10K). A reversed reading often produces an odd value that does not appear in the standard series.
When in doubt, measure with a multimeter and confirm.

Tolerance and temperature bands at a glance

Tolerance band color	Value
Brown	±1%
Red	±2%
Green	±0.5%
Blue	±0.25%
Violet	±0.1%
Gold	±5%
Silver	±10%

The 6th band (temperature coefficient) is expressed in ppm/°C and is common in precision circuits. Brown (100 ppm/°C) and red (50 ppm/°C) are the most common. A resistor’s value drifts by that many parts per million for every degree Celsius of temperature change — important when a design must stay accurate across a wide temperature range.