Laundry tag decoder
What does this laundry symbol mean? Snap the tag.
Take a photo of the tiny care symbols on any clothing tag. Get plain-English wash, dry and iron instructions plus the exact washer and dryer settings, like cold, delicate, tumble dry low.
Photograph the care tag
Get close so the little symbols fill the frame. Include the fabric line if you can.
How it works
1. Snap the tag
Close up, in good light. Several tags from one load work too (Pro).
2. Read it in plain English
Every symbol and the fabric, turned into simple steps with warnings about shrinking and bleeding.
3. Press the right buttons
Exact washer cycle, water temperature, spin and dryer heat, grouped into loads.
The symbols people ask about most
Full symbols chartLaundry guides
Laundry symbols meaning: the complete care tag chart
What every washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and dry-cleaning symbol on a clothing care tag means, in plain English, with a printable chart.
Can I put this in the dryer? How to read the tumble dry symbols
The square-and-circle symbols tell you whether clothes can go in the dryer and on what heat. Here is how to read them, and what to do when there is no tag.
How to wash clothes without shrinking them
Why sweaters, jeans and tees shrink, which fabrics are risky, and the exact washer and dryer settings that keep clothes their size.
Dry clean only: can I wash it at home?
"Dry clean" and "dry clean only" are not the same. Which fabrics you can safely hand wash at home, and which ones you really should not.
Questions
›What do the symbols on clothing tags mean?
There are five basic shapes. A tub is washing, a triangle is bleach, a square with a circle is the tumble dryer, a plain square is air drying, an iron is ironing, and a circle is dry cleaning. Dots mean heat (one is low, three is high), lines underneath mean a gentler cycle, and an X means do not.
›Can I put this in the dryer?
Look for a square with a circle inside. If it is crossed out, keep it out of the dryer. One dot means low heat, two medium, three high. If there is no dryer symbol at all, wool, silk, rayon and anything with spandex should be air dried to be safe.
›How does DryerDecoder read my tag?
You take a photo, and an AI vision model reads every symbol and the fabric line, then turns them into plain-English steps and the actual buttons to press on a washer and dryer. Photos are processed to answer you and are not stored.
›Is it free?
Yes. You get 3 tag scans a day without signing up. Pro ($4.99/month or $49.90/year) adds unlimited scans, sorting up to 5 tags into loads at once, a saved wardrobe, settings for your exact washer and dryer, and "can I save it?" advice for shrunk or dye-stained clothes.
›How do I wash clothes without shrinking them?
Wash in cold water on a gentle cycle and skip the dryer, or use low heat, for wool, cotton knits and rayon. Heat plus agitation is what shrinks fibres. Our guide on washing without shrinking has the exact settings.