Paint Coverage by Brand: Square Feet per Gallon Compared

Coverage per gallon by product

These are the coverage figures each manufacturer publishes on its own product page or technical data sheet, as listed in October 2026. Links to every source are at the bottom of this page.

How much the brand changes your order

The walls of a 12 x 12 foot room with 8 foot ceilings, one door, and two windows come to 334 square feet. Two coats plus a 10 percent buffer is about 735 square feet of coverage.

At 350 square feet per gallon that rounds up to 3 gallons. At 450 square feet per gallon it is 2 gallons. So on a single room, the difference between the low and high ends of these labels is about one gallon.

Why the label number is a best case

Manufacturers measure coverage on a smooth, primed surface, applied at a set wet film thickness. Real walls are rarely that cooperative, and the published ranges already hint at it: the low end of each range is for porous or textured surfaces.

• Some brands publish a single maximum ("up to 400") and others a range. Plan with the low end of a range.
• One-coat claims come with conditions. Behr limits its Dynasty one-coat hide guarantee to colors in its one-coat color collection, and Valspar recommends two coats for Signature.
• Bare drywall, patches, and big color changes need primer first. Count the primer as its own coat with its own coverage.
• Spraying uses more paint than rolling because of overspray, which these figures do not include.