Coolors

Coolors is a color palette generator that lets you spin up palettes by hitting the spacebar. The tool launched in 2013 and has grown into a small ecosystem with palette generation, contrast checkers, gradient builders, and image-based extraction. Designers use it as a fast brainstorming surface before they commit to a brand system.

The pitch is friction-free. Open the generator, smash spacebar, lock the colors you like, and keep cycling. Within a minute you have a five color palette that mostly looks coherent. That experience is why Coolors became a default bookmark for so many designers.

What Coolors actually does

The flagship feature is the random palette generator. The algorithm tries to produce harmonious combinations rather than truly random hex codes. You can lock individual swatches, adjust hue and saturation, and reorder colors with drag.

Beyond random generation, Coolors has tools for extracting palettes from photos, building gradients, checking contrast for accessibility, exporting to CSS or design tools, and browsing community palettes. The free tier covers most casual workflows.

Who Coolors is built for

Coolors is for anyone who needs a palette and doesn't want to start from a blank canvas. That's UX designers prototyping a new brand, hobbyists picking colors for a portfolio, indie hackers naming their startup brand, and educators teaching color theory.

It's not really aimed at strict brand teams who already have rigorous tokens and design systems. Coolors is upstream of that work, where the question is still "what colors should we even consider".

Coolors pricing

The free tier is generous. You can generate, save, and export palettes without paying. Some advanced features like unlimited palette saves, advanced collections, and ad-free use are gated behind Coolors Pro.

Pro is a small monthly or annual fee. For most casual users the free tier is enough. Designers who use Coolors daily often upgrade for the smoother experience.

Features that define Coolors

Spacebar generation is the soul of the product. It removes the analysis paralysis that comes with a color picker grid. You either like the palette or you skip to the next.

The image palette extractor is a quiet favorite. Drop in a photo and Coolors pulls a five color palette from it. Mood boards become palettes in two clicks.

The contrast checker maps to WCAG ratios so you can verify whether body text passes accessibility. Exports include CSS, Sass, JSON, PNG, SVG, and direct copy paste into common design tools.

Tradeoffs and rough edges

Coolors generates harmonious looking palettes, not necessarily on-brand ones. If your brief is "make this feel like a fintech in 2026", random generation is going to need a lot of locking and tweaking.

The free tier shows ads. They're tasteful, but they're there. Heavy users find the experience smoother on Pro.

Coolors vs alternatives

Common alternatives include Adobe Color, Khroma, and tools inside Figma like color libraries. Adobe Color leans on color theory rules. Khroma is AI driven and learns your taste. Figma's built-in tools fit if you already live there.

Coolors wins on speed and accessibility. It's the fastest path from blank to "good enough to iterate on". See the best color palette tools and Coolors alternatives.

Common questions about Coolors

Is Coolors free? Yes, the core generator is free with ads. Pro removes ads and adds advanced features.

Does Coolors export to Figma or Sketch? Yes, palettes export as CSS, JSON, and direct paste into popular design tools.

Can Coolors check accessibility? Yes, it includes WCAG contrast scoring for text on backgrounds.

Bottom line on Coolors

Coolors is the friction-free color palette tool that just keeps working. It's a default bookmark for a reason. Try it on your next side project, and check tools for designers for matching utilities.

If you're picking a brand palette, hit spacebar a hundred times, lock the keepers, and move on with your day.

Coolors workflows for designers

The most common workflow is brainstorming a brand. You generate dozens of palettes, save the keepers, and bring three or four into Figma for layout testing. The fastest path from blank to "actual brand" runs through Coolors.

Photographers and content creators use the image extractor to build palettes from existing brand photos. That's a clean way to make a content site feel cohesive without designing a whole brand system.

Tips for using Coolors well

Lock the colors that fit your brief, then generate around them. The locked colors anchor the palette and the rest fills in around. That's a much more controllable workflow than pure random generation.

Test contrast as you go. The contrast checker shows pass or fail for body text and large text against any background. Catching accessibility issues early avoids painful brand pivots later.