5-Band Resistor Color Code
Select the band colors
Three significant digits, then a multiplier and a tight tolerance band.
Result
Band breakdown
How to use this calculator
Five-band resistors are the precision workhorses: the first three bands are three significant digits, the fourth is the multiplier, and the fifth is a tighter tolerance (often 1%, 0.5% or better). Read from the tolerance end, pick each color, and the tool rebuilds the resistor and the value live. Because there is an extra digit, 5-band parts express values the 4-band system can't (such as 1.00 kΩ or 4.70 kΩ) and the digit/multiplier/tolerance readout is tinted with each band's color for an instant visual match to the component in your hand.
What the value means in a circuit
The decoded resistance is used exactly as with any resistor — it sets current (I = V/R) and voltage division ratios — but the tighter tolerance matters most in feedback, bias, reference and timing networks, where a looser part would shift the operating point from one board to the next. The acceptable range shown (nominal ± tolerance) is the window the part is guaranteed to fall inside, so designers choose 5-band (or 6-band) resistors when a circuit's performance depends on that value being close to nominal rather than merely within a few percent.