Brand Colors: How 25 Well-Known Brands Use Color (With Hex Codes)

Picking brand colors feels like it should be easy. It's just a few colors, right?

Then you open a color picker, stare at 16.7 million options, and suddenly you're three hours deep into a debate about whether your blue is "trustworthy" or just a bit… dentist's office.

Here's the good news; you don't have to guess. The biggest brands in the world have already made these decisions, tested them on millions of people, and published the results in the one place anyone can look: their own websites.

So I went and looked.

How I got these hex codes

Most "brand colors" lists you'll find online copy the hex codes from a logo file or an old brand book. That's fine, but it's not what the brand actually uses day to day.

Instead, I pointed our own style guide extractor (the same one behind every guide on SiteStyleGuide) at 50 well-known brand homepages. It reads each site's stylesheets and counts every color, weighting them by where they're used: body text, headings, buttons, backgrounds and so on.

From those, here are 25 brands whose colors tell a story, with the hex codes their websites were using on 23 October 2026.

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The quick reference: 25 brand colors at a glance

If you just came for the hex codes, I won't make you scroll. Here they are.

Every one of these has a full style guide on SiteStyleGuide, with RGB and HSL values, contrast scores, typefaces and downloadable tokens. Just add the domain after our address, like sitestyleguide.com/stripe.com.

Now for the interesting part: what these colors can teach you.

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The reds: loud, confident and used sparingly

Red is the color of "look at me." Which is exactly why the best brands are careful with it.

1. Coca-Cola: #EA0000

Probably the most famous red on the planet. Here's the surprise, though: on Coca-Cola's homepage, its reds (#EA0000 and a deeper #BF1004) make up less than 3% of the color in its CSS. The rest is black, white and a soft gray background (#EEEEEE).

The lesson? A strong brand color doesn't need to be everywhere. It needs to be unmistakable where it is.

See the full Coca-Cola style guide →

2. Target: #CC0000

Target's red is slightly darker and calmer than Coke's. It shows up on backgrounds, the browser's theme color and key text. They even have their own typeface, "Helvetica for Target." Now that's commitment.

See the full Target style guide →

3. Pinterest: #E60023

Pinterest is the opposite of Coca-Cola: its red is the single biggest color on the site, at nearly 17%. It works because everything else is pure black and white; there's nothing competing with it.

See the full Pinterest style guide →

4. YouTube: #FF0033

YouTube's red has a hint of pink in it (that last "33" is blue creeping in). It's warmer on screens than a pure #FF0000, and much easier on the eyes when it's sitting next to thousands of video thumbnails.

See the full YouTube style guide →

5. Heinz: #D6001C

Ketchup red, obviously. What I love is the support act: a deep maroon (#540B26), a pickle green (#007A40) and a creamy off-white (#FFF9F1) that makes the whole site feel like a label on a glass bottle.

See the full Heinz style guide →

6. Airbnb: #E31C5F

Airbnb's "red" is really a family of pinks: #E61E4D #E31C5F and #D70466, which together make up the gradient on its buttons. Pair that with soft #222222 text and you get warm, not shouty.

See the full Airbnb style guide →

7. Red Bull: #DB0A40

Red Bull is a sneaky one. You'd assume red leads, but the most-used colors are actually deep navies (#001C39 and #00162B). The red is the accent. Navy does the heavy lifting; red delivers the punch.

See the full Red Bull style guide →

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The blues: trust, tech and a lot of buttons

Blue is the safe pair of jeans of the brand world. That's not an insult; there's a reason so many tech and finance brands wear it.

8. Apple: #0071E3

Apple's blue is almost entirely used for one job: things you can click. Links, buttons, borders. Everything else is white, a light gray (#E8E8ED) and text in #1D1D1F.

Notice that text color. It's not black. More on that shortly.

See the full Apple style guide →

9. Google: #0B57D0

If you expected Google's four logo colors, you won't find them doing much on its homepage. The site runs on one deep blue, a pale blue (#C2E7FF) and near-black text (#1F1F1F).

Your logo palette and your website palette don't have to be the same thing. Google proves it.

See the full Google style guide →

10. LinkedIn: #0A66C2

LinkedIn's blue comes with a darker partner, #004182, for hover and pressed states. It's a small detail that makes buttons feel responsive, and it's something many small business sites forget.

See the full LinkedIn style guide →

11. Visa: #1434CB

A strong royal blue backed by a gold (#FCC015) and a navy (#021E4C). Blue and gold is an old combination for "you can trust us with money," and Visa wears it well.

See the full Visa style guide →

12. Notion: #2383E2

Notion is famous for being mostly black and white. Look closer, though, and the "black" text is a warm, brownish #37352F. That one choice is why Notion feels like paper rather than a spreadsheet.

See the full Notion style guide →

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The purples: creative, playful and a little bit bold

Purple used to be rare in branding. Not anymore; especially in software.

13. Stripe: #635BFF

Stripe's "blurple" sits right between blue and purple. Around it, there's a bright gradient of magenta (#EE30FB) and yellow (#FFD601), which is what makes Stripe's homepage look so alive.

See the full Stripe style guide →

14. Discord: #5865F2

Another blurple, but friendlier. Discord leans into playful extras like a bright green (#57F287) and pink (#EB459E). It suits a brand built around gaming and community.

See the full Discord style guide →

15. Twitch: #9147FF

Twitch's purple shows up in a full family of shades: #772CE8 for darker moments and #BF94FF for lighter ones. That's how you make one brand color work across a whole interface.

See the full Twitch style guide →

16. Slack: #481A54

Slack's deep aubergine is still there, alongside a brighter purple (#730394) and a blue (#0B5CAB). The fonts are "Salesforce Avant Garde" and "Salesforce Sans" these days, which tells you who owns Slack now.

See the full Slack style guide →

17. Cadbury: #4B0983

Cadbury's purple is one of the most recognizable in the world, and on its website it's used for almost 17% of the color. The gold (#F1CD76) and cream (#FFECB2) beside it are basically a chocolate wrapper in hex.

See the full Cadbury style guide →

18. FedEx: #660099

FedEx's purple dominates its site at a whopping 25%: the highest share of any brand on this list. The famous orange from the logo barely shows up at all.

See the full FedEx style guide →

19. Canva: #7D2AE8

Canva splits its personality between purple and a teal (#00C4CC), which together echo its gradient logo. Text is a soft slate gray (#3F4652), not black.

See the full Canva style guide →

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The greens: fresh, growing and very on-brand for "go"

20. Starbucks: #00754A

Starbucks uses its green in two strengths: #00754A for buttons and highlights, and a deep "house green" (#1E3932) for headers and backgrounds. There's also a red (#C82014) doing a surprising amount of work.

See the full Starbucks style guide →

21. Spotify: #1ED760

Spotify flips the usual approach: dark background (#121212), light gray text (#B3B3B3) and that bright green as the accent. Notice the background isn't pure black either.

See the full Spotify style guide →

22. WhatsApp: #43CD66

WhatsApp's bright green sits next to the older teal (#128C7E) and a very dark forest green (#103928). Three greens, one clear brand.

See the full WhatsApp style guide →

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The yellows and oranges: warm, optimistic and hard to get right

Yellow is tricky. It's cheerful, but white text on yellow is almost impossible to read. Watch how these brands handle it.

23. IKEA: #FFDB00

IKEA's yellow does the shouting, its blue (#0058A3) does the trust, and the background is a barely-there warm white (#FFFEFB). Text sits on yellow in near-black #111111, never white.

See the full IKEA style guide →

24. Mailchimp: #FFE01B

Mailchimp's "Cavendish Yellow" is backed by a deep teal (#007C89) and a plum (#692340). The text is a warm dark gray (#403B3B), which makes the yellow feel friendly rather than like a warning sign.

See the full Mailchimp style guide →

25. Amazon: #FF9900

Amazon's orange is the accent; the real workhorse is "squid ink" navy (#232F3E) across the header. Even the text is a not-quite-black #0F1111.

See the full Amazon style guide →

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What 25 brands taught me about choosing brand colors

After staring at hex codes for longer than any reasonable person should, a few patterns jumped out.

1. Your brand color is an accent, not a paint bucket. Coca-Cola's reds are less than 3% of its homepage's color. Even FedEx, the boldest on this list, sits at about 25%. Most of any good website is neutral.

2. Almost nobody uses pure black for text. Apple uses #1D1D1F. Google uses #1F1F1F. Airbnb uses #222222. Notion uses a warm #37352F. Pure #000000 on pure white can feel harsh on screens; softening it slightly makes reading easier. (Plenty of brands do still use #000000, so it's not a crime. Just a choice.)

3. Your logo colors and website colors can differ. Google and FedEx both run their websites on a fraction of their logo palette. Pick website colors that work for buttons, links and backgrounds, not just for a logo on a white page.

4. One color, many shades. Twitch, LinkedIn and Starbucks all use lighter and darker versions of their main color for hover states, backgrounds and highlights. You get variety without losing your identity.

5. Supporting colors do the real work. Red Bull's navy, Amazon's squid ink, IKEA's blue. The color you remember isn't always the color that holds the page together.

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A quick checklist for your own brand colors

Before you lock anything in, run through this:

1. Pick one lead color that's ownable in your industry. If every competitor is blue, maybe don't be blue.
2. Choose one or two supporting colors. A darker partner for depth, and maybe a contrast color for highlights.
3. Set your neutrals. An off-black for text, an off-white or light gray for backgrounds, and a mid-gray for borders.
4. Make light and dark versions of your lead color for hover and pressed states.
5. Check contrast. Text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background to pass accessibility guidelines (WCAG). Every guide on SiteStyleGuide shows these scores for you.
6. Use your lead color sparingly. Buttons, links and key moments. Let neutrals carry the rest.
7. Write it all down in a simple style guide, with hex codes, so your team (and future you) use the same colors every time.

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Steal like a designer

You don't need a branding agency and a six-figure budget to get your colors right. You need a clear lead color, a few sensible neutrals, and the discipline to use them consistently.

If you want to dig into any of these brands further, every one has a full guide on SiteStyleGuide with typefaces, contrast scores and downloadable design tokens for CSS, Figma and Tailwind. Or browse our examples and find a palette that feels like you.

Then go pick your colors. It's a lot more fun when you know what the big brands already figured out.

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