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Free Color Contrast Checker (No Signup)

Check foreground/background color contrast ratios against WCAG AA/AAA standards.

100% FreeNo Sign-upFast & Secure
Contrast Ratio
4.14 : 1

Poor. Only passes for large text.

Live Text Preview

This box demonstrates exactly how your text will look on the chosen background. Ensure your users can read this comfortably without straining their eyes.

Button Style

WCAG AA Standard

Normal Text (4.5:1) FAIL
Large Text (3.0:1) PASS

WCAG AAA Standard

Normal Text (7.0:1) FAIL
Large Text (4.5:1) FAIL

Overview

Designing a beautiful website is important, but designing an accessible website is a strict requirement. Millions of users navigate the web with visual impairments or color blindness. If your text doesn't sufficiently contrast with your background, they cannot read your content. Furthermore, poor contrast is a major reason for failing ADA compliance audits. Our WCAG Color Contrast Checker is a critical utility designed to ensure your UI designs meet global accessibility standards instantly.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) dictate strict mathematical ratios between foreground text and background colors. Rather than calculating luminance formulas yourself, our tool provides an instant, visual evaluation. You simply select your background color and your text color. The tool instantly calculates the contrast ratio (e.g., 4.5:1) and tells you exactly whether it passes the AA (minimum) and AAA (enhanced) standards for both normal and large text. If you are struggling to find a background color that works, you can easily generate new ideas using our Color Palette Generator.

We built this tool to integrate seamlessly into a fast-paced frontend workflow. Whether you are tweaking a CSS stylesheet or auditing a Figma file, the instant feedback loop saves you from deploying inaccessible code. If you are creating beautiful gradients instead of solid backgrounds, you should also test those colors using our CSS Gradient Generator to ensure readability.

Ensure your digital products are usable by everyone. Use this free, offline-capable tool to validate your design choices before they go to production.

Key Features

Instant WCAG Scoring: Calculates exact contrast ratios in real-time, instantly informing you if your colors pass AA and AAA accessibility standards.
Dual Input Methods: Input colors via raw HEX codes or use the intuitive visual color picker for both the text and the background.
Live Visual Preview: See exactly how your text will look against the background on a simulated webpage before committing to the design.
Pass/Fail Indicators: Clear, color-coded badges (Pass in green, Fail in red) remove the guesswork from complex WCAG mathematics.
100% Client-Side Processing: Your design variables are calculated locally in your browser instantly, with zero server latency.

How to Use Contrast Checker

1Select the Text Color by typing a HEX code (e.g., #FFFFFF) or using the visual color picker.
2Select the Background Color using the same method.
3Watch the 'Contrast Ratio' score update dynamically in real time.
4Check the Pass/Fail badges below to see if the combination meets WCAG AA (minimum 4.5:1) or AAA (minimum 7:1) standards.
5Review the live 'Preview' area to visually judge the readability of the text yourself.

Benefits

  • Ensures Legal Compliance: Helps prevent costly lawsuits and ADA compliance audits by ensuring your website meets minimum visual accessibility laws.
  • Expands Your Audience: Makes your content readable for millions of users with visual impairments, cataracts, or color blindness.
  • Improves Usability for Everyone: High contrast isn't just for the visually impaired; it makes reading on a mobile device in bright sunlight significantly easier for all users.
  • Eliminates Guesswork: Replaces subjective opinions ('Does this look readable to you?') with objective, mathematical WCAG scoring.

Common Use Cases

UI/UX Designers

Audit early-stage Figma prototypes to ensure that the brand's primary accent colors can be safely used for vital Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons with white text.

Frontend Web Developers

Check the exact CSS HEX values assigned to standard paragraphs and page backgrounds to guarantee the deployed website passes Lighthouse accessibility audits.

Accessibility Consultants

Quickly demonstrate to clients why a specific light-gray text on a white background is failing WCAG tests and needs to be darkened.

Tips & Best Practices

  • The WCAG requirements are slightly relaxed for 'Large Text' (typically 18pt regular or 14pt bold). A combination that fails for small paragraphs might perfectly pass for an H1 headline.
  • If your contrast ratio is slightly failing (e.g., 4.3:1), try darkening the text or lightening the background just a few shades. You rarely have to abandon the hue entirely.
  • Pure black (#000000) on pure white (#FFFFFF) provides the maximum possible contrast ratio (21:1).