WCAG Color contrast checker

To check the color contrast between foreground and background of the texts

The WCAG Color Contrast Checker is a powerful Chrome extension designed to help developers and designers ensure their web content meets accessibility standards. It evaluates the color contrast between foreground and background elements on any webpage, aligning with WCAG 2.2 guidelines. The tool accurately calculates contrast considering computed styles, including RGBA colors with opacity.

Additionally, it offers the ability to simulate various types of color blindness, enabling users to preview how content appears to colorblind individuals and adapt accordingly. Users can manually test specific color pairs or pick colors directly from the page for immediate contrast analysis. The extension auto-refreshes when page content changes but allows disabling this feature for pages with frequent updates. This makes it an essential tool for creating inclusive and accessible web experiences.

By:
Jorge Rumoroso
Users:
80,000+
Rating:
4.13
(30)
0.04
Version:
3.8.4 Last updated: 2024-03-03
Creation date:
2020-06-26
Risk:
High risk impact Very low risk likelihood
Permissions:
  • activeTab
  • storage
  • webNavigation
Host permissions:
  • <all_urls>
Size:
166.91K
Email:
ru*****@gmail.com
Full description:
See detailed description ⏷
Source:
Chrome Web Store
Updated:
a day ago

Other platforms

WCAG Contrast checker (v3.8.4)
4,284+ 4.07 (15)
WCAG Color contrast checker (v3.8.4)
8,737+ 4.00 (1)

User reviews

Pros
  • Automatically loads all contrast pairs found on the page without manual selection
  • Provides actual contrast ratios, not just pass/fail grades
  • Allows manual entry of color values
  • Includes support for simulating different types of color-blindness
  • Auto-updates results as the page changes, saving time
  • Distinguishes between large/small and normal/bold text according to WCAG 2.2 standards
  • Easy and fast to use with a useful interface for visualizing accessibility issues
Cons
  • Does not work well on localhost environments or with local PDFs
  • Issues detecting some colors correctly, including CSS color-mix and text shadows
  • Difficult to locate specific elements from the contrast pairs list when multiple similar elements exist
  • No option to change the panel position from left to right side of the page
  • Lacks an eyedropper tool for selecting custom colors
  • Recent update requesting access to browser history raised privacy concerns
  • Overlay panel sometimes hides parts of the page without adjusting viewport or showing the element clearly in DOM
Recent reviews
It understandably doesn't detect the background color correctly when the background is an element with opacity over a background image. When this happens, I'd like to manually select the background color to confirm the contrast is high enough, but when I select the correct background color with the eyedropper tool, the contrast listed doesn't update. The color is picked correctly, except as an rgba color with an alpha of 0. It does this even if the color I'm picking has no opacity. I have to go to an external tool to convert this to a hex color and paste it back in as a hex to get the contrast checker to update. It would save a lot of time if the eyedropper tool picked a hex color. Once I manually correct a background color, it would also help if I could save this at least until the page reloads, so I can more easily identify which colors I haven't checked yet.
by Human Person, 2025-05-06

It seems it doesn't work on localhost, at lest with Svelte develoment environement, so not very useful
by Paolo Pantaleo, 2025-04-11

I tried a bunch of contrast checking extensions and settled on this one! What I liked: 1) Immediately loads all the contrast pairs it finds in the page with no need to manually capture areas. 2) Provides the actual contrast ratios, not just a pass/fail grade. 3) You can still manually enter colour values if you want. 4) Has an awesome feature where you can quickly switch between different types of colour-blindness to see how those conditions impact the contrasts! Limitations: 1) Some pages will have problem areas such as text on background images which this system can not account for. 2) In a complex page, it can be difficult to identify a specific area in the page to find its contrast report. It needs to be located in reverse: clicking on the contrast pairs list items puts a red border on that element in the page (& scrolls to it). This helps, but some are still hard to locate. 3) The grading system only offers two levels (WCAG2.2 AA & AAA). It would be nice to have a custom field to set a targeted standard. 4) It would be nice if the custom colour entry had an eye-dropper tool. This would assist in problems 1 & 2.
by Wednesday Dessauer, 2025-01-29
View all user reviews ›

Extension safety

Risk impact

WCAG Color contrast checker requires some sensitive permissions that could impact your browser and data security. Exercise caution before installing.

Risk impact analysis details
  • Critical Allows access to all websites, posing a significant security risk as it can monitor and modify data from any visited site.
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Risk likelihood

WCAG Color contrast checker has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

Risk likelihood analysis details
  • High This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.
  • Low **** ********* *** ******* **** **** * ****** **** ***** ******** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
  • Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
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