Compare Paint Colors
Use this tool when you're down to two paint colors and need a side-by-side read before you buy samples. Compare undertones, light reflectance, photos, and close matches across Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, Behr, Farrow & Ball, Valspar, and Glidden.
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Common questions
Can I compare colors from different brands?
Yes. The tool supports comparisons across Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, Behr, Farrow & Ball, Valspar, and Glidden. Brand formulas use different bases, so a close visual match can still behave differently in sheen and coverage.
Are on-screen comparisons accurate?
They're close, not exact. Screens lie because brightness, night mode, and calibration change color. Sample both colors on the wall before committing.
Two whites look identical on screen. How do I decide?
Compare the numbers here first. If one white bounces back 3 percent more light than the other, or the two sit in different undertone families, the wall will show it even when the screen hides it. Then get physical samples of both and paint two boards for the same wall. Check them in morning and evening light before choosing because whites swing more between those two than any other color group. Samples settle it.
How different do two colors have to be before anyone notices?
Further apart than most people expect. A gap of a point or two in these numbers is a difference almost nobody can see on a wall, even holding the two chips side by side. Once one color bounces back 3 to 5 percent more light than the other, the difference reads in most rooms, and at 10 percent apart anyone walking in will catch it. Dim rooms tighten that: with little light to work with, 2 percent can make one color feel heavier, and lightness registers long before either undertone does.
Which number should I trust most when two colors are this close?
Start with lightness, meaning how much light each color bounces back into the room. A few points of separation there changes how a wall feels at 8am and at 8pm more than any undertone shift will. Undertone is the second read. It decides whether the color argues with your floor, your trim, and the light coming through the window, so weigh it once lightness has narrowed things down.
Why do these two look more different here than on the store chip?
A screen makes its own light and aims it at your eyes. A paper chip has none of its own and can only bounce back whatever the store ceiling gives it, which flattens close colors and hides the split you see here. Use the screen to shortlist. Painted sample boards in your own room make the actual call.
Does this comparison work for exterior paint?
Yes, with one adjustment. Direct sun washes color out, so both colors land lighter and weaker outside than the numbers here suggest, and the lighter of the two loses the most. Paint large samples and check them on the shaded side of the house as well as the sunny side. A color picked off the sunny wall alone usually turns gloomy around back.
Can I compare more than two colors at once?
Two at a time is the limit here. Run a longlist as knockout rounds instead: compare the first pair, keep the winner, then put the next candidate up against it. Six colors take five rounds and leave you with one real answer rather than a stack of chips that all look acceptable.