Car Paint Code: Where to Find It and What It Means

An online car paint code lookup: where to look for the paint code label on your car, which characters on it are the color and what the code means. The codes come from the car makers' own publications — price lists, color charts and their website data — with the source named on every row. You can photograph the label: the tool reads the text and highlights the paint code, and from a VIN it names the make and year and shows where the label is. You can also pick your model to see only its colors, and work out how much paint, hardener and thinner a panel needs.

How to find your paint code

Type the make or the VIN

The tool shows where that make puts the label. From a VIN it works out the make and year by itself.

Find the label on the car

Check the spots on the diagram — usually the center pillar or the driver's door opening, on some makes the trunk or the hood.

Photograph it or type the code

The tool highlights the paint code on the photo or finds the typed code in the catalog.

Check the color before painting

Read the notes next to the code and spray a test card — you buy by the code, you confirm the match on the car.

Find your car's paint code by make, VIN or a photo of the label

Make, model, paint code or VIN

Type a make, a make and model, the code from the label or the 17 characters of a VIN — the tool works out which one it is.

📷 Take a photo of the label — the tool finds the code on it

Drop image here

JPG, PNG, HEIC, WEBP ·

Shoot close and straight on, without flash or glare. The text is read right in your browser; the recognition model downloads once.

Or pick a make

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🎨 A paint code is not yet the exact color

One code can have several shades. Factories paint in batches, and popular colors come in variants under one code — slightly lighter, darker or more yellow. A paint shop picks the variant from a test spray.
Cars fade. After a few years the paint on the sunny side gets lighter, and fresh paint mixed by code will show next to it. For a large panel, matching to the fuel door is more accurate.
Metallic and pearl depend on how they are sprayed. Film thickness, number of coats and pressure change the shade, and clear coat is required on top. Chips and scratches forgive this; whole panels do not.
Spray a test card first. Apply the paint to a card or a spare part, let it dry, clear-coat it and compare it with the car in daylight from several angles.
Plastic and metal look different. Bumpers and fuel doors are painted to the same spec but on a different base — next to metal the difference can show even with the same code.

🧮 How much paint to buy

Check the panels you will paint: the calculator counts spray cans or liters and tells you how much hardener and thinner to add.

Loading the catalog…

➕ Your car or code is missing? Add it

Codes for Chinese makes are especially welcome: their makers hardly publish them. A moderator checks each submission, and then the code appears in the catalog marked “from owners”.

Make

Model

Year

Paint code from the label

Color name, if you know it

Where the label was

Comment (optional)

No photo needed — the make and the code are enough. We do not reply by email: the code simply appears in the catalog.

What the lookup does

Shows where the label is on your make

A car diagram with numbered spots — pillar, door opening, hood, trunk — in the order the label turns up on that make.

Finds the code on a photo of the label

A factory label carries dozens of characters. Photograph it — the text is read in your browser and the paint code is framed by the make's rules: after “EXT PNT” on a Ford, under “EXT. COLOR” on a Honda.

Codes from primary sources

Codes and names come from the makers' price lists, color charts and website data, and every row names its source.

An honest answer about the VIN

The VIN holds no color. From a VIN the tool names the make and year and shows where that make puts the label; for makes that offer an official color lookup by VIN, it tells you where to find it.

Warns you before you buy

Shade variants under one code, fading, metallic and tri-coat paints — everything that makes paint “by code” differ from the car is listed next to the code.

Grows with owners

Chinese makes hardly publish their codes. An owner sends the code from their label, a moderator checks it, and the code appears in the catalog marked “from owners”.

Why paint is bought by the code but matched to the car

A paint code is the name of the factory color, like an article number. It tells the shop which formula to mix, but not how your car looks: how many years it has stood in the sun, which shade variant it got and how much clear coat is left on it. For a chip or a scratch the code is enough. For a door or a fender, matching at a paint shop against a sample from the car and a test spray is more accurate — the code is what gets you started on the right formula.

Paint code questions

Can I get the paint code from the VIN?

Not from the number itself: the 17 characters of a VIN encode the maker, model, year and serial number, but no color. The code lives in the factory build records. Some makers name the color by VIN on their website — the lookup tells you where — and an official dealer can find it by VIN for most others. The fastest route is the label on the car: from the VIN the tool tells you where your make puts it.

The label has lots of numbers — which one is the paint code?

It depends on the make. On a Ford it is the two characters after “EXT PNT”, on a Honda the code under “EXT. COLOR”, on a Mercedes-Benz the “PAINT CODE” field (a small lower-left field on European plates), and on a Geely the characters in the bottom-right corner of the plate, with no caption at all. Photograph the label: the tool reads the text, recognizes the make from the VIN or the name on the plate and frames the code.

I bought paint by the code and the color does not match. Why?

The code names the factory color, not how your car looks today. Popular codes have several shade variants, paint fades in the sun, and metallic and pearl change shade with film thickness. That is why a paint shop matches paint for a visible panel against the car itself — for example the removed fuel door — and checks it with a test spray.

There is no label, or it has worn off. What now?

Check the other spots for your make on the diagram — many cars carry a label or plate in two places. The code is sometimes written in the service book. For many makes an official dealer can look it up by VIN. If you find the code, add it with the form — it will help the next owner.

Does the same code mean the same color at every make?

No. Each maker has its own codes, and the same characters mean different colors: 040 is a white at Toyota and a black at Mercedes-Benz. That is why a bare code gets an answer per make — add the make to the search to get one color.

Why is there no color list for my make?

The lookup takes codes only from the maker's own publications, and many makes — especially Chinese ones — do not publish them. For those the tool shows where to look for the label. You can send the code from your car with the form: after a check it appears in the catalog.

How much paint does a bumper or a door need?

A passenger-car bumper or door is about 0.8 m². Makers (Dupli-Color, presto) state that a 400 ml spray can covers about 1.3 m² per coat, and paint goes on in two or three thin coats — so a bumper takes about two cans of color, plus as much clear for a metallic. The calculator on this page does this sum for any set of panels, and for a spray gun it gives liters of ready-to-spray mix and the hardener and thinner shares from the ratio on your can.

💡 Want us to improve this tool just for you?

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Who is this tool for?

🚗 Drivers

Published 23 Sep 2026 Updated 24 Sep 2026 Author: The Supreme