How to Make Your iPhone Screen Black and White or Grayscale

Turn off the color on your iPhone's display

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: May 7, 2025 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to change everything on your iPhone's screen to black and white or grayscale. Using your iPhone in grayscale mode can be easier on your eyes than full color, and can also be helpful in distinguishing icons and images if you're colorblind. You may also want to use grayscale if you find yourself easily distracted by apps and games, as a colorless screen won't be as enticing. You can easily switch to grayscale in your Accessibility settings.

Things You Should Know

Open your iPhone's Settings and select "Accessibility."
Go to Display & Text Size > Color Filters, then toggle on the Color Filters switch.
Tap "Grayscale" to enable grayscale mode.

Steps

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You'll see this gray gear icon on your Home screen or in your App Library.^{[1]
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It's in the third group of settings.^{[2]
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It's near the top of the first group of settings.^{[3]
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This will open your color filter options, which includes grayscale.^{[4]
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This will enable color filters on your iPhone and allow you to select one of the available filters.^{[5]
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Tap Grayscale. This is the first option in the list of color filters. This will instantly change your display to black-and-white (grayscale).
- You can toggle off the Color Filters switch anytime to bring color back to your screen.

Community Q&A

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Question

How do I change black-and-white display to color?

Community Answer

General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters (ON). Should pop up a screen with color pencils and other demonstrations; you can also change the filter to only pass certain colors.

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Tips

Grayscale and black-and-white are technically a little bit different. Black-and-white uses only two levels of color, while grayscale uses a wide range of blacks and whites.

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Switching to black and white is not proven to have any effect on your iPhone's battery.

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There's a lot of compelling evidence out there that switching to black and white will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on the phone. If you're trying to cut back on your screen time, this is a great first step!

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