Porsche Paint Code: Where to Find It and How to Read It
The exact label to look for on a Porsche, how the code is printed, what people mistake it for, and 12 verified Porsche colour codes.
NHTSA vPIC has no colour field, so no VIN decoder returns one. The label on the vehicle is the reliable route.
Porsche prints the paint code on a paper vehicle data sticker, not on the driver's door jamb. Look in the spare tire well under the trunk floor, at either side of the front luggage compartment under the carpet, in the center of the underside of the front lid, or on the first page of the owner's manual. The code is three characters, or four beginning with L.
Where is the paint code on a Porsche?
- Spare tire well, under the trunk floor. A large white paper vehicle data sticker sits on or beside the spare tire, under the luggage compartment floor panel. AutomotiveTouchup names this as the typical spot for the Cayenne and Panamera; PaintScratch says the spare tire area is where Porsche codes usually are on any model; Porsche Delaware, a Porsche dealer, tells Macan owners to look here first. Applies broadly to SUVs and sedans from the early 2000s to current cars, and to many sports cars as well.
- Front luggage compartment (frunk), either side under the carpet. On the 911, Boxster and Cayman the sticker is on bare metal at the left or right side of the front luggage compartment, usually behind a carpet edge you have to unclip. AutomotiveTouchup shows both sides on its Porsche location diagram; owners on Rennlist's 996 forum and on 911uk describe it under the carpet against the inner fender. Common on water-cooled cars from the mid-1990s onward, and the sticker may instead be a paper option list glued inside the lid.
- Center of the underside of the front lid or hood. A paper option list is glued to the middle of the underside of the front lid. AutomotiveTouchup dates this placement to roughly the mid-1970s through 2005 models. Sources disagree on the cut-off: Porsche Delaware still lists the center hood as a place to check on later cars including the Macan, so treat the year range as approximate rather than a hard boundary.
- Owner's manual or service booklet in the glove box. A duplicate sticker is commonly stuck to the first page of the owner's manual or inside the service book. AutomotiveTouchup and PaintScratch both list this, and Porsche Delaware puts it second after the spare tire well. It applies across model years and is often the only surviving copy, because AutomotiveTouchup reports Porsche stopped applying the label at the factory and left it to dealers, who receive it loose in the bag holding the front license plate bracket.
How to read the Porsche paint code
Three characters, or four characters beginning with L, mixing letters and digits — AutomotiveTouchup, PaintScratch and Porsche Delaware all describe the same two forms. The same color appears both ways: M7W and LM7W are both Meteor Grey Metallic, 1S1 and L1S1 are both Racing Yellow. Cars built before roughly 1980 carry all-digit numbers instead, such as 027 (Guards Red) and 6406 (Irish Green). Porsche has no single printed field label equivalent to Toyota's "C/TR" box; on the data sticker the exterior color entry sits with the interior trim code, ahead of the option list. Two things get mistaken for it. The two-character short code (0Q, 1A, U2, G1, 2T) is not unique — AutomotiveTouchup's 2018 Porsche table lists 1A against both Carbon Grey Metallic and Enzianblau Metallic. The three-digit M-numbers (M030, M220, M474) are equipment options, not paint. The interior code is a separate entry for trim color and material.
- Open the rear hatch or trunk and lift the floor panel. Look for a large white paper sticker on or beside the spare tire well — this is the vehicle data sticker, and on the Cayenne, Macan, Panamera and Taycan it is the first place to check.
- If it is not there, open the front lid. Check the center of its underside, then both sides of the front luggage compartment, releasing the carpet edge so you can see the bare metal on the inner fender.
- Check the glove box. Porsche and its dealers often place a duplicate label on the first page of the owner's manual or inside the service booklet, and on many cars this is the only copy left.
- Read the exterior color entry: three characters, or four starting with L. Ignore the two-character short code, the interior trim code, and any three-digit M-numbers, which are equipment options.
- Cross-check the code against a Porsche color reference. Rennbow, the Porsche Club of America's color wiki, lists each code with the manufacturer's own color name and the models and years it was offered.
- Verify before you paint. Have the refinisher spray a test card from the code's formula and hold it against a clean panel in daylight, because one code can cover several factory batch variants.
Common Porsche paint codes
| Code | Porsche colour name | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| M7Z / LM7Z | GT Silver Metallic | 911, 718, Boxster, Cayman and Panamera, roughly 2004-2025. Also shown as U2 or Y90. |
| M7W / LM7W | Meteor Grey Metallic | 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne through the mid-2000s and 2010s. Also shown as 9Q. |
| 92U / L92U | Arctic Silver Metallic | Very common on 996 and 997-era cars and the 987 Boxster/Cayman. Also shown as X1 or 92T. |
| M7S / LM7S | Agate Grey Metallic | 911, 718, Macan and Panamera, roughly 2011-2024. Also shown as N0. German name Achatgrau. |
| M9A / LM9A | Chalk | 911, 718, Cayenne, Macan, Panamera and Taycan, 2017 onward. Also shown as 3H. German name Kreide. |
| M5C / LM5C | Miami Blue | 911, 718 and Macan, roughly 2017-2023. Also shown as J4 or J5. Some sites wrongly list L39C, which is Midnight Blue Metallic. |
| M2A / LM2A | Lava Orange | 911, 718 and Cayenne, roughly 2014-2023. Also shown as H2. |
| 1S1 / L1S1 | Racing Yellow | 911, Boxster, Cayman and 718, roughly 2012-2025. Also shown as P3 or S1S. |
| LM3A / 84A / 027 | Guards Red | In production from the mid-1970s to current cars, so the printed code varies by era; 027 and 80K appear on older cars, 84A and LM3A on later ones. |
| 041 / L041 | Black | Non-metallic black, used across almost the whole range. Also shown as A1. German name Tiefschwarz. |
| C9A / LC9A | White (Pure White) | Non-metallic white on 911, 718, Cayenne, Macan, Panamera and Taycan from about 2012. Also shown as 0Q. |
| 6406 | Irish Green | The original code, offered on the 356 C from 1964. Rennbow also lists 6606, 6806, 1515, 213 and L60E across the 911, 912, 912 E and 914 through 1977. |
This list is not every colour Porsche has sold. Always confirm against the label on your own vehicle before ordering paint.
What to know before you order paint
- A 17-character VIN does not encode paint. NHTSA's vPIC decoder publishes 144 vehicle variables and not one of them is color or paint — checked directly against the GetVehicleVariableList endpoint at vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov — so any service advertising a paint code from a VIN is either reading a manufacturer build record behind the scenes or guessing from the model.
- Porsche itself separates the two ideas. The Porsche Cars North America vehicle documentation FAQ, updated 20 February 2026, states that the exterior color code listed on a Porsche Production Specification is the Porsche exterior color code, and that the paint code is the code found on your vehicle.
- AutomotiveTouchup reports that Porsche no longer fits these labels at the factory and leaves it to dealers, who typically receive the sticker in the bag holding the front license plate bracket. On cars sold without a front plate the label is often discarded, which is why so many US Porsches have no sticker anywhere.
- The short two-character code is not unique. AutomotiveTouchup's 2018 Porsche color table lists 1A against both Carbon Grey Metallic and Enzianblau (Gentian Blue) Metallic, so give a refinisher the three-character code or its L-prefixed form instead.
- Classic Paint to Sample cars often show L999 (Sonderfarbe, German for special color) on the trunk option sticker instead of a real color code — Elferspot documents this on several 1980s 911 Carrera 3.2 listings — and the actual color then has to come from Porsche's own records.
Porsche and refinish sources
Open the underlying public source and verify that its scope matches the question you are asking.
Porsche paint code questions
Can I find my Porsche's paint code from the VIN?
No. A 17-character VIN does not encode paint color. NHTSA's free vPIC decoder returns 144 fields for a VIN and none of them is color, so a VIN alone cannot produce a paint code. Sites advertising "paint code by VIN" are either querying a manufacturer build record behind the scenes or guessing from the model and year. The label on the car is the reliable route.
Where is the paint code on a Porsche Cayenne?
Start in the spare tire well. Lift the trunk floor panel and look for a large white paper vehicle data sticker on or beside the spare tire. AutomotiveTouchup lists this as the typical location for the Cayenne and Panamera, and PaintScratch says the spare tire area is where Porsche codes usually sit. If it is not there, check the owner's manual, then the front luggage compartment under the carpet.
Where is the paint code on a Porsche Macan?
Check the spare tire compartment first, then the owner's manual. Porsche Delaware, a Porsche dealer, says the large white sheet in the spare tire compartment is the first place to look, with the owner's manual, the center of the hood and the front compartment storage area as the alternatives. That dealer also notes Porsche has been inconsistent about where the label is placed, so check all four.
What is the paint code for Irish Green?
Irish Green first appeared as color code 6406, on the 356 C for 1964, according to Rennbow, the Porsche Club of America's color wiki. Rennbow lists several codes across the years the color was offered: 6406, 6606, 6806, 1515, 213 and L60E, spanning the 356, 911, 912, 912 E and 914 through 1977. Read your own label rather than assuming one of them.
How do I tell the paint code from the other codes on the sticker?
The paint code is three characters, or four starting with L — M7W and LM7W are both Meteor Grey Metallic. Skip the two-character short code: AutomotiveTouchup's 2018 Porsche list shows 1A against two different colors, so it does not identify a color on its own. Skip the interior code, which describes trim color and material, and the M-numbers such as M030 or M220, which are equipment options.
Does Porsche print a second code for pearl, tri-coat or two-tone paint?
No. The sticker carries one exterior color code even for pearl and special-effect finishes — Deep Black Pearl is the single code 2T, or LC9X. What changes is the spray process, not the code: PPG publishes a dedicated repair procedure for Porsche 9S8 Liquid Metal Silver because that finish is built in stages. So a generic or close-enough match will not work on a Macan or any other Porsche.
Are there online resources for looking up Porsche paint codes?
Yes. Rennbow, the Porsche Club of America's color wiki, lists Porsche colors with their codes and the models and years each was offered. Refinish suppliers including AutomotiveTouchup and PaintScratch publish year-by-year Porsche color tables. For your specific car, Porsche sells a Porsche Production Specification for $150 that lists factory build data including the exterior color code.
What if the sticker is missing from my Porsche?
Order the documentation from Porsche. In the US a Porsche Production Specification costs $150, takes six to eight weeks and is mailed rather than emailed, per Porsche's vehicle documentation FAQ. For model year 2019 and newer the Monroney window sticker is a free PDF in My Porsche and gives the color name. A Porsche dealer can also pull the build record from your VIN.