Toyota Paint Code: Where to Find It and How to Read It
The exact label to look for on a Toyota, how the code is printed, what people mistake it for, and 12 verified Toyota colour codes.
NHTSA vPIC has no colour field, so no VIN decoder returns one. The label on the vehicle is the reliable route.
On a Toyota, the paint code is on the vehicle identification label inside the driver's door jamb; on trucks and vans it sits low on the driver's door pillar. Find the box printed C/TR (color/trim). The three characters before the slash are the paint code — 040, 202, 1G3 — and the four after it are the interior trim code. A 17-character VIN does not contain the paint code.
Where is the paint code on a Toyota?
- Driver-side door jamb. Toyota's vehicle identification label — the white or silver sticker carrying the VIN, a barcode and the model, MFR body and axle rows. The paint code is in the C/TR box below the barcode, normally toward the bottom left. This is the standard position on Toyota passenger cars from the 1989 model year to the present, and AutomotiveTouchup, ChipFixx and ToyotaPartsDeal independently place it there.
- Lower driver-side door pillar. The same identification label, mounted low on the B-pillar rather than at shoulder height, on trucks, vans and body-on-frame SUVs — Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, Sienna. ToyotaPartsDeal describes the code as the first three characters on the second line from the bottom of this label. 1989 model year to present.
- Engine compartment, on or beside the firewall. Toyotas built before the 1989 model year carry a metal I.D. plate on or adjacent to the firewall instead of a door-jamb label, per ToyotaPartsDeal's colour-code service page. Sources place the move to a driver's-door label at 1989, and some Land Cruiser and pickup references describe a door-pillar label as early as 1989, so on a late-1980s vehicle check both the firewall and the door pillar.
- Under a carpet flap by the front passenger seat. On older Toyota vans the plate sits on the body under a carpet flap directly below the front of the front passenger seat. ToyotaPartsDeal gives this in the same pre-1989 section as the firewall plate, so treat it as applying to the 1980s Toyota Van rather than to a later Previa or Sienna, which use the standard door-pillar label.
How to read the Toyota paint code
Three characters, mixing digits and letters: 040, 070, 202, 218, 1G3, 8X8, 3R3. They are printed immediately after "C/" inside the box labeled C/TR (color/trim), usually at the bottom left of the label under the barcode — ToyotaPartsDeal describes it as the first three characters on the second line from the bottom. Ignore everything after the slash: that four-character group (FB13, LC20, PB10, FH13) is the interior trim and seat-material code, and it is the single thing most often mistaken for the paint code. Codes that begin with 2 are two-tone combination codes, not a single colour.
- Open the driver's door and find the white or silver vehicle identification label on the door jamb — on Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, Sienna and Land Cruiser look lower, near the bottom of the door pillar.
- Read past the VIN and the barcode to the rows underneath, and find the box printed C/TR. That stands for colour/trim.
- Take the three characters before the slash. That is the paint code — for example, in C/TR: 1G3/FB22 the code is 1G3, Magnetic Gray Metallic. Discard the four characters after the slash; they are the interior trim code.
- If the code starts with 2 and the vehicle has a contrasting roof, it is a two-tone combination code. Ask the dealer or supplier for the two component codes behind it before ordering any paint.
- On a Toyota built before the 1989 model year, skip the door and look for the metal I.D. plate on or beside the firewall in the engine compartment; on 1980s Toyota vans it sits under a carpet flap below the front of the front passenger seat.
- Verify before you spray: give the code plus the model year to a Toyota parts counter or a refinish supplier, then compare a sprayed-out test card against the actual panel in daylight, since sun-faded paint drifts from the factory formula.
Common Toyota paint codes
| Code | Toyota colour name | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| 040 | Super White | Solid white, no pearl. Toyota's most widely used code — Corolla, Camry, RAV4, Tacoma, Tundra and others, roughly 1987 through the mid-2020s. |
| 070 | Blizzard Pearl | Three-stage white: base, translucent pearl midcoat, clear. Roughly 2005-2022 on 4Runner, Highlander, RAV4, Sienna, Land Cruiser, Venza. |
| 089 | Wind Chill Pearl | Three-stage white that replaced 070 on many lines from 2018. Camry, Corolla Hatchback, Tundra, Avalon, Prius, Tacoma. |
| 202 | Black | Solid black, no metallic. In use since the early 1980s and still current — one of the longest-running Toyota codes. |
| 209 | Black Sand Pearl | Dark pearl black. Also the roof colour in many Toyota two-tone combinations, such as 2NR. |
| 218 | Midnight Black Metallic | Toyota sells the same code under two names: Midnight Black Metallic on trucks and SUVs, Attitude Black Metallic on Avalon, Prius and other car lines. |
| 1D6 | Silver Sky Metallic | Roughly 2001-2025. Common on RAV4, Tundra, Tacoma. |
| 1F7 | Classic Silver Metallic | Roughly 2005-2025. Corolla, Prius, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, Corolla Hatchback. |
| 1G3 | Magnetic Gray Metallic | 2007 to present, one of Toyota's most common grays. 4Runner, C-HR, Highlander, RAV4, Sequoia, Tundra, Land Cruiser. |
| 1H5 | Cement | Flat-looking light gray, strongly associated with the Tacoma from about 2011 onward; also 4Runner and Tundra. |
| 1J9 | Celestial Silver Metallic | 2015 to present. Camry, Highlander, Sequoia, Sienna, Avalon. |
| 3R3 | Barcelona Red Metallic | Roughly 2010-2024. Camry, Highlander, RAV4, Sienna, Venza, Corolla, Tacoma. |
This list is not every colour Toyota 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 the paint code. Decoding Toyota VINs through NHTSA's vPIC DecodeVinValues endpoint (vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov, checked August 2026 on a 2012 Camry, a 2016 Tacoma and a 2018 RAV4) returns 154 fields — engine model, plant city, body class, restraint data — with no exterior colour or paint field of any kind. A dealer can retrieve the code because Toyota's build record holds it, not because the VIN carries it.
- Toyota Motor Sales' own "Exterior Color Codes — U.S.A TOYOTA" model-year report is the cleanest code-to-name source. The 2021 edition lists 040 Super White, 070 Blizzard Pearl, 089 Wind Chill Pearl, 1G3 Magnetic Gray Metallic, 218 Midnight Black Metallic and 3R3 Barcelona Red Metallic, and spells every two-tone code out as body colour plus roof colour.
- Code 218 carries two Toyota marketing names for the same paint: Midnight Black Metallic on trucks and SUVs, Attitude Black Metallic on Avalon, Prius and other car lines. TouchUpDirect sells it as "Attitude/Midnight Black Metallic 218" for exactly this reason, so a name mismatch between your window sticker and a supplier listing is not necessarily an error.
- Toyota's white pearls 070 and 089 are three-stage finishes — white base, translucent pearl midcoat, clear — which is why refinish suppliers such as PaintScratch and Dr. ColorChip list them as tricoat and sell the midcoat separately. A single-stage product carrying the same code will not match.
- PaintScratch states the distinction plainly: the VIN identifies the vehicle, the paint code identifies the paint. The same source warns that similar colour names do not guarantee the same paint and that one name can cover more than one code, which is why matching by code beats matching by name.
Toyota and refinish sources
Open the underlying public source and verify that its scope matches the question you are asking.
- Exterior Color Codes — U.S.A TOYOTA, Model Year 2021 (dealer distribution report)Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.
- vPIC VIN decoding API (DecodeVinValues)NHTSA
- How to find Toyota color codeToyotaPartsDeal
- How to Find Toyota Paint CodesAutomotiveTouchup
- Paint Color Code 2QJ — two-tone component codesImportArchive
Toyota paint code questions
Where is the paint code on a Toyota?
On the vehicle identification label inside the driver's door jamb. Open the driver's door and look for the white or silver label carrying the VIN and a barcode; the paint code sits below the barcode in the box printed C/TR. On Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, Sienna and Land Cruiser the same label sits lower on the driver's door pillar. Pre-1989 Toyotas use an ID plate near the firewall instead.
Is the Toyota paint code in the VIN?
No. A 17-character VIN encodes the manufacturer, model line, restraint system, engine, plant and model year, but never the paint. Decoding a Toyota VIN through NHTSA's free vPIC service returns 154 fields and not one is exterior colour. Sites advertising "Toyota paint code by VIN" are either reading a Toyota build record through a dealer system or guessing from the model. Read the door label.
What does C/TR mean on the Toyota door sticker?
C/TR means colour/trim. The characters before the slash are the exterior paint code; the characters after it identify the interior trim and seat material. In C/TR: 1F7/FB13, the paint code is 1F7, Classic Silver Metallic, and FB13 is the interior. Ordering by the trim code is the most common mistake, because both groups are printed the same size on the same line.
What colour is Toyota paint code 1C0?
1C0 is Millennium Silver Metallic. Toyota used it in the early 2000s on the 4Runner (1999-2002), Highlander (2001-2007), RAV4 (2001-2003), Prius (2004-2005) and several Lexus lines of the same era. It is a two-stage metallic: base coat plus clear, no pearl midcoat. Check it against your own door label first, because Toyota has used several close silvers including 1D6, 1E7 and 1F7.
What colour is Toyota paint code 3P1?
3P1 is Impulse Red Pearl. It appeared on the Corolla (2001-2008), RAV4 (2001-2003), Tacoma (2001-2008), Echo (2003-2005) and the 2003 4Runner. Red pearls fade unevenly in sunlight, so a fresh 3P1 mix usually reads brighter than a twenty-year-old panel. Have the shop spray a test card and blend into the next panel rather than stopping the repair at a body line.
How do two-tone Toyota paint codes work?
Toyota assigns one three-character code to the whole combination, and it starts with 2. Toyota's own model-year colour report names them body-then-roof: 2NR is Super White with a Black Sand Pearl roof, 2QJ is Blizzard Pearl with a Midnight Black Metallic roof. A refinisher needs the two component codes behind it: 040 and 209 for 2NR, 070 and 218 for 2QJ.
Why does my white Toyota need more than one paint?
Because 070 Blizzard Pearl and 089 Wind Chill Pearl are three-stage finishes, not plain whites. Each is a white base coat, a translucent pearl midcoat, then clear. A single-stage aerosol sold under the same code will not match, because the midcoat is what makes the panel shift in daylight. Buy the code as a tricoat kit, and note that midcoat thickness controls the final shade.
What if the door jamb label is missing or unreadable?
Give the VIN to a Toyota dealer's parts counter. Dealers read the factory build record, which does carry the paint code, and Toyota's customer line, 1-800-331-4331, is the fallback that Toyota-affiliated paint sellers point to. On pre-1989 vehicles, check the ID plate near the firewall as well. Do not match by colour name alone: one Toyota name can cover more than one code.