Apple Card colors: What they mean and why they change

Do you have an Apple Credit Card* in your digital wallet? Take a minute to open your Wallet app and look at the color of your digital Apple Card. Believe it or not, your virtual Apple Card changes colors every time you make a purchase – and once you know why the Apple Card changes color and what the Apple Card color categories represent, you can use this information to track your spending, stick to a budget and make smarter financial decisions.

What do the colors on the Apple Card mean? Apple Card colors are designed to give you a quick visual guide to where your money is going – but this helpful tool works only when you know how the Apple Card color categories work, why a green Apple Card is different from a red Apple credit card and how to use Apple Card colors to evaluate your spending habits.

Why the Apple Card changes color

Why does your Apple Card keep changing color? Every time you make a new purchase, your Apple Card either adds or expands a color, and since the Apple Card changes color every time you spend money, the colors in your Apple Card are a real-time reflection of your purchases and priorities.

As you make purchases in various spending categories, your digital Apple Card changes color to reflect those purchases. If you spend a lot of money on restaurants, for example, your Apple Card will have a lot of orange in it. If you book a vacation, your Apple Card might look greener than usual.

It’s important to note that an Apple Card is rarely one solid color. Spending a lot of money on travel, for example, won’t give you a solid green Apple Card. The colors on your Apple Credit Card reflect all of the outstanding charges on your card, which means that most will show a mix of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. If you pay off your balance in full, your Apple Card color changes to white. New colors appear when you start making new purchases.

See related: How to get a credit limit increase with the Apple Card

What are the Apple Card color categories

What do the colors on the Apple Card mean? The Apple Card color categories are as follows:

• Red: Health
• Orange: Food and drink
• Yellow: Shopping
• Green: Travel
• Blue: Transportation
• Purple: Services
• Pink: Entertainment

Let’s say that you do most of your spending on travel, followed by restaurants and transportation. You might have a green Apple Card with a bit of orange and blue in it. If you have a month with a lot of unexpected medical expenses, you might have a red Apple Card with a few other colors in it to represent the other purchases you’re currently paying off.

On the subject of paying off your credit cards: There’s one more Apple Card color to be aware of. When your Apple Card is paid off in full, the digital card will no longer reflect the categories of spending in your outstanding balance. Instead, the card will appear white – until you begin making new purchases and adding Apple Card colors to your digital wallet again.

How to track Apple Card spending with colors

You can use the Apple Card colors two different ways to track your spending. When you open your Wallet app, the colors on your digital Apple Card give you a quick visual overview of the types of purchases that make up your outstanding balance. Is your Apple Card mostly pink? You’ve done a lot of entertainment spending recently. Have a green Apple Card? You’ve made a lot of travel purchases.

The other way to track Apple Card spending with colors is by using the Wallet app to view your weekly transactions. When you view your Weekly Activity, each weekly spending summary will be color-coded by category. This will show you not only where your money goes each week but also how your spending changes over the course of a month.

Tracking your Apple Card colors can also help you stick to a budget. If you only want to spend 10% of your income on entertainment, for example, a quick glance will let you know whether your Apple Card has too much pink on it. Watching your Apple Card colors change can even show you whether the majority of your charges are going toward purchases that reflect your values.

How the Apple Card colors differ from Apple Card skins

The Apple Card color categories apply only to the digital Apple Card that appears when you open your Wallet app. Your physical Apple Card is white, and it does not change color as you make purchases.

Since the physical Apple Card is a titanium credit card, some people decide to protect and/or customize the metal card with an Apple Card skin. Apple does not sell Apple Card skins but various third-party retailers offer customizable skins. If you want a black Apple Card, a textured Apple Card or an Apple Card skin with an eye-catching image, you have plenty of options — and when you use your Apple Card to buy an Apple Card skin online, watch for a percentage of your digital Apple Card to turn yellow.

Want to know more about the Apple Card? Start with our complete guide to the Apple Card, followed by three reasons why the Apple Card isn’t right for everybody. If you already applied and were denied, find out why your Apple Card may have been denied and next steps to get another chance.