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Color Palette Generator API

GET

Build cohesive, web-safe color palettes from any base color.

Color Palette Generator is a color palette API that builds a harmonious color scheme from one HEX base color. Every plan returns each color's HEX code, closest color name, a dark flag and a legible black or white text color; paid plans add RGB, HSL, WCAG contrast checks, CSS variables and a PNG of the palette.

Try it — live request, no key required

Request
GETapi.apiverve.com/v1/colorpalette?color=FF5733
Query parameters
Verification
Format

No key required to try it. Get a key to use it in your app.

Example
{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "source": "#FF5733",
    "sourceName": "Outrageous Orange",
    "hue": 11,
    "scheme": "triade",
    "variation": "soft",
    "distance": 0.5,
    "colorCount": 5,
    "colorPalette": [
      {
        "hex": "#CC988F",
        "name": "Oriental Pink",
        "rgb": {
          "r": 204,
          "g": 152,
          "b": 143
        },
        "hsl": {
          "h": 9,
          "s": 37,
          "l": 68
        },
        "luminance": 0.373,
        "isDark": true,
        "textColor": "#FFFFFF",
        "accessibility": {
          "contrastWithWhite": 2.48,
          "contrastWithBlack": 8.46,
          "wcagAANormal": false,
          "wcagAALarge": false,
          "wcagAAA": false
        }
      },
      {
        "hex": "#805F59",
        "name": "Russett",
        "rgb": {
          "r": 128,
          "g": 95,
          "b": 89
        },
        "hsl": {
          "h": 9,
          "s": 18,
          "l": 43
        },
        "luminance": 0.135,
        "isDark": true,
        "textColor": "#FFFFFF",
        "accessibility": {
          "contrastWithWhite": 5.68,
          "contrastWithBlack": 3.7,
          "wcagAANormal": true,
          "wcagAALarge": true,
          "wcagAAA": false
        }
      },
      {
        "hex": "#E6D2CF",
        "name": "Dust Storm",
        "rgb": {
          "r": 230,
          "g": 210,
          "b": 207
        },
        "hsl": {
          "h": 8,
          "s": 32,
          "l": 86
        },
        "luminance": 0.674,
        "isDark": false,
        "textColor": "#000000",
        "accessibility": {
          "contrastWithWhite": 1.45,
          "contrastWithBlack": 14.48,
          "wcagAANormal": true,
          "wcagAALarge": true,
          "wcagAAA": true
        }
      },
      {
        "hex": "#BF6E60",
        "name": "Contessa",
        "rgb": {
          "r": 191,
          "g": 110,
          "b": 96
        },
        "hsl": {
          "h": 9,
          "s": 43,
          "l": 56
        },
        "luminance": 0.231,
        "isDark": true,
        "textColor": "#FFFFFF",
        "accessibility": {
          "contrastWithWhite": 3.74,
          "contrastWithBlack": 5.61,
          "wcagAANormal": false,
          "wcagAALarge": true,
          "wcagAAA": false
        }
      },
      {
        "hex": "#A2CC8F",
        "name": "Pine Glade",
        "rgb": {
          "r": 162,
          "g": 204,
          "b": 143
        },
        "hsl": {
          "h": 101,
          "s": 37,
          "l": 68
        },
        "luminance": 0.529,
        "isDark": false,
        "textColor": "#000000",
        "accessibility": {
          "contrastWithWhite": 1.82,
          "contrastWithBlack": 11.57,
          "wcagAANormal": true,
          "wcagAALarge": true,
          "wcagAAA": true
        }
      }
    ],
    "colorPaletteRaw": [
      "cc988f",
      "805f59",
      "e6d2cf",
      "bf6e60",
      "a2cc8f"
    ],
    "css": ":root {\n  --primary: #CC988F;\n  --primary-rgb: 204, 152, 143;\n  --secondary: #805F59;\n  --secondary-rgb: 128, 95, 89;\n  --tertiary: #E6D2CF;\n  --tertiary-rgb: 230, 210, 207;\n  --quaternary: #BF6E60;\n  --quaternary-rgb: 191, 110, 96;\n  --quinary: #A2CC8F;\n  --quinary-rgb: 162, 204, 143;\n}",
    "image": {
      "imageName": "6ee29826-a52f-4c87-86f5-bef3b49f0dbb_palette.png",
      "format": ".png",
      "downloadURL": "https://storage.googleapis.com/apiverve/APIData/colorpalette/6ee29826-a52f-4c87-86f5-bef3b49f0dbb_palette.png?GoogleAccessId=635500398038-compute%40developer.gserviceaccount.com&Expires=1766010083&Signature=Boef5OapaNmcyp0F8bGmf%2BVfQk3zQkiWcw1THBfbsevtYGZnOuzr7xKDRlk9FYiHidSoMz6wjody2ymL7GzUoHkDvA8PEdSERhAq2z9St5yWlaX1c87KoNh%2FtCQEJqHixYk039NuYyb%2FhJu18JFY1RNrOfo8OPZEn9a3ICQdTDL0fYQEZEBxnDuc%2B7wvn4q9UFWhCJcf302HcoZoCw76AzrgVRu%2FazuahqHdVWMR1K5QTV3U51lSoqC23ERHjRZ6uZB8W0bCO65qBFrRNzWEPSVCC%2F8oafvvitZwB1YCG674q3MbtRhWXIhX2zdoPCT%2BgxL7E4fgIyXDtDLm5%2Bm%2Fsg%3D%3D",
      "expires": 1766010083748
    }
  }
}

About the Color Palette Generator API

A color palette generator API for themes, design tools and white-label apps. Send a base color, a scheme (mono, contrast, triade, tetrade or analogic) and a variation (default, soft, pastel, light, hard or pale), and the generator takes the base color's hue and places the other colors around the color wheel by color theory rules, optionally limited to web-safe colors. The Free plan returns up to 5 colors with HEX, name, isDark and textColor, plus a plain list of HEX values. Paid plans return up to 16 depending on the scheme and add RGB, HSL, WCAG luminance, contrast ratios against white and black with AA and AAA pass flags, ready-to-paste CSS variables and a downloadable palette image. To convert a single color between formats, use Color Converter.

What people use it for

Dynamic Theme Generation
White-label SaaS dashboards build branded interface themes instantly by supplying a customer's primary brand HEX to retrieve complementary UI shades and legible text colors.
Website Builder Customization
When site owners select a key accent color, CMS site editors generate matching color sets to style page headers, background sections, and button borders.
E-Commerce Product Showcases
Match catalog item tones to surrounding promotional banners by creating monochromatic or contrasting palettes directly from product hero image colors.
Design Tool Integrations
Digital illustration software presents automated analogic or triadic color swatches to artists based on their current active brush color.

Without writing code

Color Palette Maker for Windows fans any color out into a palette of five.

The Color Palette widget from WidgetSpark keeps one on your desktop.

See it in action

The Color Palette Generator API in one live call, from the Playground to your own code.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON
Default REST response
XML
Markup format
YAML
Human-readable
CSV
Tabular export
Beta
GraphQL
Query language
New
MCP
For AI agents

Other ways to use Color Palette Generator

Same data, same APIVerve account, same credit balance — one key works on all of them.

Questions.

Common questions about the Color Palette Generator API.

Read the docs →
Is it cheap enough to generate palettes for every user theme?
Yes. At 2 credits per call, the Starter plan covers 100,000 palette generations a month, which works out to $0.30 per 1,000 calls (about $0.0003 per call). The Free plan includes 100 calls each month at no cost.
Are accessibility metrics and CSS variables included on the Free plan?
No. RGB and HSL values, luminance, WCAG contrast data, CSS variables and the downloadable palette image require a paid plan starting with Starter. The Free plan returns each color's HEX value, closest color name, isDark flag and recommended text color, plus colorPaletteRaw, and limits palettes to 5 colors.
What color schemes does the generator support?
Color Palette Generator supports monochromatic, contrast, triade, tetrade, and analogic schemes. You can apply color variations on every plan; paid plans let you fine-tune spacing distance across multi-color schemes and add complement colors to analogic palettes.
Does the base color accept hex codes with a leading hash mark?
Yes. Send ff5733, or %23ff5733 if you include the hash, since a bare # in a query string starts a URL fragment and the color is lost. Three-digit shorthand such as f00 is expanded to ff0000. The response returns the normalized color with a leading #, its hue in degrees and its closest color name.
Why isn't my exact base color in the palette?
The scheme is built from the base color's hue alone. Saturation and lightness come from the variation you choose, so a palette from ff5733 is a set of oranges and their partners rather than ff5733 itself. source and sourceName echo the color you sent, so you can add it to your theme alongside the palette.
Can I restrict palette colors to web-safe values?
Yes. Setting the webSafe parameter to true restricts all generated colors to standard web-safe values. You can combine this with any supported color scheme and set palette sizes between 1 and 16 colors on paid plans.

Ready to build with Color Palette Generator? Start with 200 free credits — one key unlocks all 300+ APIs.

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