Teal and Cyan color palette
teal · 0.018
Treat this as a tonal pairing, not a pairing. At a 2.04:1 ratio, teal #0E7C86 text on a cyan #06B6D4 background (or the reverse) will not be readable for body copy. Lean into that closeness instead of fighting it.
The two sit only 10 degrees apart on the wheel, both cool blues with a green pull. Teal is the deeper, more grounded one. Cyan is brighter and pushes toward the sky. Blended, they meet at a slightly darker cyan (#0C99AC) that works well as a midpoint stop.
This is where the pairing earns its keep: gradients and Tailwind UI accents. A teal-to-cyan gradient feels like clean water or fresh tech, and the smooth transition reads as one continuous color rather than two fighting shades. On the web, use teal for primary buttons and headings, then cyan for hover states, highlights, or secondary chips. Keep dark text on light backgrounds for anything that needs to be read.
See Teal and Cyan in use
better
Teal Tailwind scale (50-900)
Cyan Tailwind scale (50-900)
Teal to Cyan blend
A continuous interpolation from Teal to Cyan, sampled into the 10 steps below. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Why Teal and Cyan blend best in OKLab
The same two colors blended three ways. This site uses OKLab, which keeps the blend smooth and evenly lit. The other two are shown so you can see what to avoid: sRGB darkens and muddies the middle, and HSL detours through colors that are not in your palette.
Accessibility
Do not place Teal text on Cyan (or the reverse) for body copy. For readable text, pair a dark scale step such as teal-800 or cyan-900 with a light one like cyan-50.
Contrast pairing grid
Rows are Teal steps, columns are Cyan steps. Each mark is a Teal step shown on a Cyan step: a check means it clears WCAG AA for text (4.5:1). If you can read the mark, the pairing is legible.
| 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 100 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 200 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 300 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 400 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 500 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 600 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 700 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 800 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 900 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
✓ passes AA ✗ fails AA
Copy for Tailwind
Tailwind v4 — @theme (paste into your CSS)
@theme {
--color-teal-50: #F2F7F7;
--color-teal-100: #E5EFF0;
--color-teal-200: #CFE1E3;
--color-teal-300: #B1CFD2;
--color-teal-400: #88B6BB;
--color-teal-500: #0E7C86;
--color-teal-600: #09646D;
--color-teal-700: #054A51;
--color-teal-800: #02292D;
--color-teal-900: #000E10;
--color-cyan-50: #F4FBFD;
--color-cyan-100: #E9F7FA;
--color-cyan-200: #D7EFF6;
--color-cyan-300: #BCE5F0;
--color-cyan-400: #97D8E8;
--color-cyan-500: #06B6D4;
--color-cyan-600: #0494AD;
--color-cyan-700: #026F83;
--color-cyan-800: #01404C;
--color-cyan-900: #001A20;
}
Tailwind v3 — tailwind.config.js
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'teal': {
50: '#F2F7F7',
100: '#E5EFF0',
200: '#CFE1E3',
300: '#B1CFD2',
400: '#88B6BB',
500: '#0E7C86',
600: '#09646D',
700: '#054A51',
800: '#02292D',
900: '#000E10',
},
'cyan': {
50: '#F4FBFD',
100: '#E9F7FA',
200: '#D7EFF6',
300: '#BCE5F0',
400: '#97D8E8',
500: '#06B6D4',
600: '#0494AD',
700: '#026F83',
800: '#01404C',
900: '#001A20',
},
},
},
},
};
CSS variables
:root {
--teal-50: #F2F7F7;
--teal-100: #E5EFF0;
--teal-200: #CFE1E3;
--teal-300: #B1CFD2;
--teal-400: #88B6BB;
--teal-500: #0E7C86;
--teal-600: #09646D;
--teal-700: #054A51;
--teal-800: #02292D;
--teal-900: #000E10;
--cyan-50: #F4FBFD;
--cyan-100: #E9F7FA;
--cyan-200: #D7EFF6;
--cyan-300: #BCE5F0;
--cyan-400: #97D8E8;
--cyan-500: #06B6D4;
--cyan-600: #0494AD;
--cyan-700: #026F83;
--cyan-800: #01404C;
--cyan-900: #001A20;
}SCSS variables
$teal-50: #F2F7F7; $teal-100: #E5EFF0; $teal-200: #CFE1E3; $teal-300: #B1CFD2; $teal-400: #88B6BB; $teal-500: #0E7C86; $teal-600: #09646D; $teal-700: #054A51; $teal-800: #02292D; $teal-900: #000E10; $cyan-50: #F4FBFD; $cyan-100: #E9F7FA; $cyan-200: #D7EFF6; $cyan-300: #BCE5F0; $cyan-400: #97D8E8; $cyan-500: #06B6D4; $cyan-600: #0494AD; $cyan-700: #026F83; $cyan-800: #01404C; $cyan-900: #001A20;
JSON tokens
{
"teal": {
"50": "#F2F7F7",
"100": "#E5EFF0",
"200": "#CFE1E3",
"300": "#B1CFD2",
"400": "#88B6BB",
"500": "#0E7C86",
"600": "#09646D",
"700": "#054A51",
"800": "#02292D",
"900": "#000E10"
},
"cyan": {
"50": "#F4FBFD",
"100": "#E9F7FA",
"200": "#D7EFF6",
"300": "#BCE5F0",
"400": "#97D8E8",
"500": "#06B6D4",
"600": "#0494AD",
"700": "#026F83",
"800": "#01404C",
"900": "#001A20"
}
}How we name colors
There is no single official authority for naming colors. We use the common, widely recognized name as the primary label for each color (here, Teal and Cyan); many common names are themselves W3C CSS named colors. For transparency we also show the nearest W3C CSS named color and the perceptual distance, ΔE, measured in OKLab. A small ΔE means the name is essentially exact; a larger one means it is the closest standard name rather than a perfect match.
Sources: W3C CSS Color Module Level 4 and the open color-name-list dataset, used to verify every color sits near a recognized name.