Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsClear MucusWhite MucusYellow MucusGreen MucusPink or Red MucusBrown or Orange MucusBlack MucusGetting Rid of MucusWhen to Seek Care

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Clear Mucus

White Mucus

Yellow Mucus

Green Mucus

Pink or Red Mucus

Brown or Orange Mucus

Black Mucus

Getting Rid of Mucus

When to Seek Care

Mucus can turn different colors for a variety of reasons. White snot can occur with a cold, for example, and pink boogers can be a sign of pregnancy. Often times green or yellow mucus indicates an infection. Yellow or clear mucus can also be a sign ofallergies.

This article discusses the various colors your discharge can take on—clear, white, yellow, green pink, red, orange, brown, and black—and their possible causes. It also helps you determine if it’s time to see a healthcare provider.

Verywell / Theresa Chiechi

What Your Mucus Says About Your Health

What Does Clear Mucus Mean?

You may have an especially runny nose with clear snot:

Rarely, watery nasal discharge can result from a leak ofcerebrospinal (CSF) fluid, the fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain. This can be due to trauma or certain medical conditions. Get emergency medical help if you have watery discharge along with:Nausea and/or vomitingStiff neckLight or noise sensitivityHeadaches that get better or worse with a change in positionA stead drip of clear fluid from only one nostril

Rarely, watery nasal discharge can result from a leak ofcerebrospinal (CSF) fluid, the fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain. This can be due to trauma or certain medical conditions. Get emergency medical help if you have watery discharge along with:

What Does White Mucus Mean?

White mucus is often associated with acold or other infectionthat causes a stuffy nose. When you’re congested, inflammation in your nose makes it harder for the snot to flow out. Mucus starts to become dry, making it cloudy and thick.

It may also turn white due to the presence of immune cells that your body sends to battle the illness.

What Does Coughing Up White Mucus Mean?

What Does Yellow Mucus Mean?

Yellow phlegm means your body is fighting an infection. The color change is due to the death of the white blood cells that came to fight off germs, which the snot is helping wash away. The texture may be drier and thicker than normal.

Yellow snot may also mean you have allergies.Allergensirritate the nasal passages, which can lead to the production of thick, pale yellow phlegm that runs down the back of the throat and causes coughing.

What Are Boogers Made Of? Texture and Function

What Does Green Mucus Mean?

Green, thick snot means your body is fighting a hard battle. Even more depleted immune cells and waste products are being flushed out, making your nasal discharge appear dark.

Green mucus isn’t a reason for immediate concern. But if you’re still sick after about 10 days, it could mean that you could have abacterial infection.

Do Yellow or Green Snot Mean I Need Antibiotics?

Is Chest Congestion a Sign of COVID-19?

What Does Pink or Red (Bloody) Mucus Mean?

Blood in the nose is more common if you live in adry climateor at ahigh elevation.

Havingasthmaor allergiescan also cause blood in your nose. A constantly runny nose can irritate nasal passages and cause one of the tiny capillaries in your nose to burst.

If you’ve had some sort of trauma to your nose or face, such as a car accident, you should see a healthcare provider right away. Other reasons to seek medical help include:Prolonged bleeding for more than 30 minutesHeavy bleeding, or more than 1 tablespoon of bloodDifficulty breathing with a bloody nose

If you’ve had some sort of trauma to your nose or face, such as a car accident, you should see a healthcare provider right away. Other reasons to seek medical help include:

What Dose Brown or Orange Mucus Mean?

Brown mucus could result from dried blood getting mixed in. Your boogers can also turn brown or orange if you inhale something like dirt, a red spice such as paprika, or tobacco (snuff).

This colordoesn’t typically result from illness.

What Does Brown Mucus Phlegm Mean?

What Does Black Mucus Mean?

Black mucus is rare and means you should see a healthcare provider right away. It is often a sign of afungal infectionthat needs to be treated. These infections can cause serious symptoms and some forms require surgery.

There are different fungal infections that can affect the sinuses, causingfungal sinusitis.

Invasive fungal sinusitis is further divided into three different forms:

The fungus itself may cause black mucus. Mucus could also be black due to dead tissue in snot.

Other potential causes of black snot include:

Don’t just assume you have black snot because you’re a smoker, though. Because a fungal infection can be dangerous, it’s important to find out for sure whether you have one.

What Causes Black Mucus and Phlegm?

Mucus Color and COVID-19Most people do not express mucus while they have COVID-19. But those with severe COVID-19 who developacute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) may have a buildup of phlegm in the lungs.This mucus is thick and concentrated, and cannot be coughed up like the sputum that’s related to the flu or common cold.

Mucus Color and COVID-19

Most people do not express mucus while they have COVID-19. But those with severe COVID-19 who developacute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) may have a buildup of phlegm in the lungs.This mucus is thick and concentrated, and cannot be coughed up like the sputum that’s related to the flu or common cold.

How to Get Rid of Mucus

Excessive mucus is an annoyance that you want to get rid of as soon as possible. These home remedies can help you clear your excess phlegm:

Keeping the head elevated can help you breathe more easily when you’ve got extra mucus.

Over-the-counter (OTC) nasal sprays like Afrin (oxymetazoline) and Neo-Synephrine (phenylephrine) may provide additional relief. However, if you use them for more than three to five days, you may actually make your symptoms worse.

When to See a Healthcare Provider

In addition to the above-mentioned instances of when to get emergency care, make an appointment to see a healthcare provider if you have yellow or green snot in addition to any of the following symptoms:

Contact a healthcare provider if your child has yellow or green snot and other symptoms, including:

Your healthcare provider can determine what OTC or prescription medicine is best to help relieve your symptoms.

While mucus is associated with bacteria, it’s important to remember that bacteria are present in your body all the time. Some make you sick and some don’t. Just because they’re in your phlegm doesn’t necessarily mean they’re problematic—or that you needantibioticsto get better.

For example, bacterial infection only occurs in between 0.5% and 2% ofrhinosinusitiscases.Manysinus infectionsgo away on their own without antibiotics, but some do require treatment.

What Is Sputum?

Summary

Changes in mucus color, from clear to white to yellow to green, are part of the normal course of an illness. It’s a sign that your immune system is fighting to get better.

Pink, red, orange, or brown snot, on the other hand, is typically not from an illness. It may just mean that there is blood or dried blood in your nose. If you have black mucus, which is rare, it may signal a fungal infection and you need to see a healthcare provider.

Why Am I Throwing Up Mucus?

12 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Penn Medicine.Yuck! My snot is green: a look at what your mucus says about your health.UpToDate.Patient education: Nonallergic rhinitis (runny or stuffy nose).UCI Health.Cerebrospinal fluid leak.Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.Rhinitis (nasal allergies).Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Manage common cold.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Mucormycosis.ENT Health.Fungal sinusitis.Kratochvil MJ, Kaber G, Demirdjian S, et al.Biochemical, biophysical, and immunological characterization of respiratory secretions in severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.JCI Insight. 2022;7(12):e152629. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.152629Mount Sinai.Sinusitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Colds and the flu.American Academy of Family Physicians.Choosing wisely: antibiotics for sinusitis.UpToDate.Patient education: Acute sinusitis (sinus infection).

12 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Penn Medicine.Yuck! My snot is green: a look at what your mucus says about your health.UpToDate.Patient education: Nonallergic rhinitis (runny or stuffy nose).UCI Health.Cerebrospinal fluid leak.Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.Rhinitis (nasal allergies).Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Manage common cold.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Mucormycosis.ENT Health.Fungal sinusitis.Kratochvil MJ, Kaber G, Demirdjian S, et al.Biochemical, biophysical, and immunological characterization of respiratory secretions in severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.JCI Insight. 2022;7(12):e152629. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.152629Mount Sinai.Sinusitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Colds and the flu.American Academy of Family Physicians.Choosing wisely: antibiotics for sinusitis.UpToDate.Patient education: Acute sinusitis (sinus infection).

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Penn Medicine.Yuck! My snot is green: a look at what your mucus says about your health.UpToDate.Patient education: Nonallergic rhinitis (runny or stuffy nose).UCI Health.Cerebrospinal fluid leak.Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.Rhinitis (nasal allergies).Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Manage common cold.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Mucormycosis.ENT Health.Fungal sinusitis.Kratochvil MJ, Kaber G, Demirdjian S, et al.Biochemical, biophysical, and immunological characterization of respiratory secretions in severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.JCI Insight. 2022;7(12):e152629. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.152629Mount Sinai.Sinusitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Colds and the flu.American Academy of Family Physicians.Choosing wisely: antibiotics for sinusitis.UpToDate.Patient education: Acute sinusitis (sinus infection).

Penn Medicine.Yuck! My snot is green: a look at what your mucus says about your health.

UpToDate.Patient education: Nonallergic rhinitis (runny or stuffy nose).

UCI Health.Cerebrospinal fluid leak.

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.Rhinitis (nasal allergies).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Manage common cold.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Mucormycosis.

ENT Health.Fungal sinusitis.

Kratochvil MJ, Kaber G, Demirdjian S, et al.Biochemical, biophysical, and immunological characterization of respiratory secretions in severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.JCI Insight. 2022;7(12):e152629. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.152629

Mount Sinai.Sinusitis.

American Academy of Family Physicians.Colds and the flu.

American Academy of Family Physicians.Choosing wisely: antibiotics for sinusitis.

UpToDate.Patient education: Acute sinusitis (sinus infection).

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