Hex to paint color matcher
Paste any hex code or use the color picker. Instantly see the closest paint match in every major US brand — searching 18,507 paints across 11 brands: Backdrop, Behr, Benjamin Moore, Clare, Dunn-Edwards, Farrow & Ball, Kompozit, Magnolia Home, PPG / Glidden, Sherwin-Williams, Valspar.
Closest matches by brand
How a hex turns into a paint match
A hex code is a screen color. Paint is pigment on a wall, and the two never line up exactly. What this tool does is convert your hex into the perceptual color space the human eye actually uses (CIE Lab), then measure the distance from your color to every paint chip in our 18,507-color library using ΔE2000, the perceptual-difference formula every paint chemist works in. The smallest distance wins, by brand.
ΔE2000 is the only sensible way to ask "how close is this paint to my color?" RGB distance treats a pure red and a pure green that are 100 RGB-units apart the same as a pale grey and a slightly different pale grey 100 units apart. The eye does not see them the same way. Lab/ΔE2000 corrects for that. Under 1, you can't tell them apart. 1–2 reads as near-perfect. 2–3.5 is close. Above 5 is a different color.
When to use this
- You have a Pantone, brand swatch, or web hex and need to source it in real paint.
- You're matching a fabric, tile, or finish to a wall color before specifying.
- You're cross-brand-shopping the closest equivalent of a Sherwin-Williams color in Benjamin Moore.
- You want to see what a digital color actually looks like next to physical paint chips.
Why the match won't be exact
Even a ΔE under 1 is a screen-to-screen number. Once you put real paint on a wall in your real room, the lighting changes everything. North-facing daylight cools every color it touches. Warm-LED bulbs warm them. The undertone you didn't notice in the chip becomes obvious on a 12-foot wall. Always order a sample pot from the brand and test on the actual wall, in the light you live with, before committing.
The hex values in our database are the brand's published swatches, which are themselves approximations of the physical paint. Treat the match as a screening shortlist, not a final spec.
FAQ
Under 2 reads as the same color to most people. Under 3.5 is close enough for moodboard work. Above 5 is a different color.
Backdrop, Behr, Benjamin Moore, Clare, Dunn-Edwards, Farrow & Ball, Kompozit, Magnolia Home, PPG / Glidden, Sherwin-Williams, Valspar — about 18,507 paints in total. Pratt & Lambert was folded into Valspar in 2025, so its colors live in the Valspar deck.
Yes — paste the hex equivalent of any Pantone, RAL, or other color spec. The tool only knows hex, so as long as you have the hex, it'll match across every brand. The Pantone Color of the Year archive has the matches already done.