Chalk
Start
Free
Last updated 2026-06-27
Key Takeaways
- Six paint tiers exist, from Chalk (free, x1) to Rainbow (x120, $5M). Higher multiplier does not always mean buy it next.
- Acrylic has the best efficiency score of any paid tier: the largest multiplier jump per coin spent at early-game costs.
- Sort the table by efficiency or multiplier to find the right buy for your current income level. Then verify it in the upgrade calculator.
Paint My Keyboard Best Paints
Finding the best paints in Paint My Keyboard means matching multiplier size to what your roller and keyboard area can actually support. This table ranks all six tiers by unlock cost, multiplier, and an efficiency score so you can spot the fastest value for your current stage, not just the strongest paint in the game.
Paint comparison table
Sort by multiplier to see raw power, by unlock cost to see what is reachable now, or by efficiency to find the best multiplier per coin spent. The efficiency score equals (multiplier / unlock cost) x 10,000.
Illustrative model. This efficiency ordering, and the costs and multipliers it sorts on, is calculated from our own paint prices and multipliers, which the game does not publish. Check the real cost in the in-game shop before you buy.
Sort by
PaintMultiplierUnlock costEfficiency
Acrylic
Early
16.7
Neon
Early
5.0
Metallic
Mid
1.7
Galaxy
Mid
0.6
Rainbow
Late
0.2
Efficiency = (multiplier / unlock cost) x 10,000. Higher scores mean more multiplier per coin spent. Chalk is free so efficiency does not apply. Acrylic leads among paid tiers.
Early game: which paint to buy first
Chalk is your starting paint. It costs nothing and sets the baseline at x1. The first real buy is Acrylic at $1,500. That jump from x1 to x2.5 is 150% more cash per key, which is the biggest percentage gain of any single tier step in the game. Getting Acrylic as early as your roller speed allows is almost always the right call.
After Acrylic, Neon at $12,000 raises the multiplier to x6. That is another 140% jump. The unlock cost is 8x higher than Acrylic, so this is where a roller upgrade sometimes wins the payback race first. Run both options through the Paint My Keyboard calculator before deciding.
One common mistake: saving for Metallic ($90K, x15) while ignoring a cheap roller upgrade that would pay back in a fraction of the time. The upgrade order guide covers exactly when to pause the paint grind and buy a speed boost instead.
Late game scaling
Once you have Neon, the three remaining tiers (Metallic x15, Galaxy x40, Rainbow x120) form the late arc of the game. Each step roughly triples income, but the unlock costs also jump by 7x, 7x, and 8x respectively. The efficiency score drops significantly at each step, which means you need a large roller and keyboard area to fund them without grinding to a halt.
Galaxy at $650K is the last tier where efficiency is still reasonable relative to Neon. Rainbow at $5M is a genuine end goal. It makes sense once your income per minute is high enough that $5M arrives in a manageable play session.
For a visual ranking of all six tiers from S down to C, see the paint tier list. It groups the tiers by game stage and explains why each one sits where it does.