Teal is darker and more muted; turquoise is brighter, lighter and more saturated.
Obvious difference: their hues sit about 11° apart, Turquoise is 33 L* points lighter, Turquoise is noticeably more saturated. These read as clearly different colours in ordinary viewing conditions, not as two versions of the same shade.
Perceptual distance
ΔE 28.1
Obvious difference
Hue difference
11°
closely related hue
Lightness
+33 L*
Turquoise is much lighter
Chroma
+14 C*
Turquoise is more saturated
Where each sits on the two axes
Positions are plotted from each colour’s measured CIELAB values. The scale is perceptual, not a paint-mixing ratio.
Warmth: Teal reads cool, Turquoise reads cool. Both sit on the same side of the warm/cool divide, so they will generally coordinate rather than clash, even where they are clearly different in depth.
Both sit in the blue-green band that English handles poorly — there is no everyday word for the region between blue and green, so several names compete for it and none is used consistently.
Teal works as a whole-room wall colour, on kitchen cabinetry and in upholstery, because its lower saturation lets it cover large areas without dominating.
Choose it when: Choose teal for anything large: walls, sofas, cabinets. Its depth means it behaves like a sophisticated dark neutral in a way turquoise cannot.
Full teal profileTurquoise is used in smaller, deliberate doses — tiles, glassware, accessories, jewellery — and is strongly associated with the mineral and with coastal and south-western design traditions.
Choose it when: Choose turquoise when you want the colour to be the thing people notice — an accent, a splashback, a single piece of furniture against a calm background.
Full turquoise profileChoosing turquoise for a full room after seeing it on a small swatch. Saturated colours intensify considerably when they cover a whole wall and reflect onto each other, so a turquoise that looked lively on a chip can feel overwhelming at room scale — teal is usually what people actually wanted.
Placed directly against each other, Teal and Turquoise give a contrast ratio of 2.91:1 — not enough for one to be used as text on the other at any size.
Contrast is only one part of an accessible pairing — see the accessibility guidance.
Measured differences (perceptual distance, hue, lightness, chroma, undertone) are calculated from each colour's own catalogue values. The usage and decision guidance is Colourwise editorial judgement drawn from conventional decorating and design practice, not a manufacturer claim — see /methodology.