Ray-Ban Model Numbers Explained: RB Codes, Sizes and How to Read Them

Turn any pair of Ray-Bans over and look inside the left temple. You will find a short line of numbers and letters stamped or printed into the plastic or metal. That line is the frame's entire identity: what it is called, what colour it comes in, and exactly how big it is. Customers ask us to translate it almost every week, so here is the full decode, from the RB3025 stamped inside a classic Aviator to the size string that tells you whether a Wayfarer will actually fit your face.

Once you can read it, buying online gets much easier. You can match a frame you already own to its replacement, confirm a pair is the size you expect before it ships, and spot the difference between two frames that look identical in a photo but are built on completely different measurements.

What RB, RW and RBR mean on a Ray-Ban frame

The letters before the number tell you which product line you are holding.

RB is the standard prefix for almost every Ray-Ban sunglass and optical frame, sun or prescription. It simply stands for Ray-Ban. The Aviator, the Wayfarer and the Clubmaster all carry it.

RBR marks the Ray-Ban Reverse line, a newer construction where the hinge and lens curvature are engineered so the frame sits differently on the face than a traditional RB build. You will see it on frames like the RBR0501S, a Wayfarer Reverse silhouette.

RW belongs to Ray-Ban's smart eyewear, built in partnership with Meta. These frames house a camera, speakers and a microphone inside otherwise classic silhouettes, and the model numbers, RW4006 and RW4010 among them, live in our smart glasses collection rather than the standard sunglasses catalogue.

Famous Ray-Ban codes, decoded

A handful of codes come up constantly in searches and in our own store, so it is worth knowing them by heart.

Code	Name	Origin	What makes it recognisable
RB3025	Aviator	1937, designed for US Army Air Corps pilots	Thin metal frame, teardrop lens, double bridge
RB2140	Wayfarer	1952	Trapezoid acetate front, the shape that defined the brand
RB3016	Clubmaster	Relaunched in the 1980s from a 1950s browline design	Half acetate brow, half thin metal bottom rim
RW4006 / RW4010	Ray-Ban Meta	2023 onward, built with Meta	Camera and speakers built into classic silhouettes

The Aviator's history is the one people ask about most. Ray-Ban's own archive confirms it was developed for pilots who needed a lens that could cut glare at altitude, long before it became a street style staple. You can read the brand's account of it directly on ray-ban.com. Every genuine pair, whatever the retailer, is still made by EssilorLuxottica, the group that owns and manufactures the Ray-Ban brand today.

How to read the size stamp on your temple arm

Underneath the model code, on the inside of the left temple, you will find a second string that looks something like 52□22 150. This is the frame's physical size, written as three numbers in millimetres: lens width, bridge width and temple length. The diagram below shows exactly where each number sits on a real stamp.

Read left to right, the format never changes: model number, then colour code, then lens width, a small square symbol standing in for bridge width, then bridge width, then temple length. So 52-22-150 means a 52mm lens, a 22mm bridge and a 150mm temple arm. The same logic explains a stamp like 61-15-145, a wider 61mm lens with a narrow 15mm bridge and a shorter 145mm temple, sizing you would typically see on an Aviator rather than a Wayfarer.

How to find your Ray-Ban size

Three ways work well. First, check a pair you already own and like the fit of: the stamp inside the temple gives you a direct comparison for any new frame. Second, measure your face width across the temples in millimetres and match it against the frame's total width, roughly lens width times two plus bridge width. Third, and simplest, message our opticians on WhatsApp with a photo of your face or your current glasses. We size Ray-Bans for customers every day and can tell you in minutes whether a 52 or a 55 will sit right.

Most adults land between 49mm and 58mm lens width. The men's Wayfarer and Aviator builds tend to run 54 to 58mm, while women's fits are commonly cut between 49 and 54mm, though plenty of people wear either comfortably regardless of how a frame is marketed.

It is also worth knowing that the size string never changes between colourways of the same shape. An RB2140 in gloss black and an RB2140 in tortoise, for example, are built on identical lens, bridge and temple measurements even though the colour code is different. If a fit worked for you in one finish, it will work in any other finish of that same model, which makes reordering a frame you already trust one of the simplest purchases you can make online.

What the colour code after the model number tells you

The three or four digit code right after the model number, 901 in our diagram, is the colourway. It is how two frames that share the exact same RB2140 shape and size can look completely different: 901 is gloss black with green classic lenses, 710 is a tortoise frame with brown gradient lenses, and so on through the range. A letter tacked onto the end of a colour code, such as an L or a T, usually flags a special lens treatment like polarised or a limited finish, so always match the full code, not just the first three digits, when you are trying to replace a pair exactly. Browse the full range in our Ray-Ban collection, including the 3025S Aviator and the 3016 Clubmaster, and the same reading applies whether the frame in front of you is a Ray-Ban or something from our Gucci or Cartier racks, since most luxury eyewear houses follow a version of the same model, colour and size convention.