Best Paracord | Tested & Reviewed

Paracord is so versatile that it’s no surprise when it shows up on every single survival kit checklist. Parachute cord first became available to civilians after WWII as surplus. Hikers, outdoorsmen, and (of course) survivalists have all come to embrace paracord for its many uses.

Since its first MILSPEC construction, there are many more types on the market, ranging from recreational Type I 95-pound paracord to heavy-duty Type IV 750-pound paracord. The most popular Type III paracord hits the sweet spot of cost and function, so that is what we reviewed the most when we were looking for the all-around best paracord for survival.

There are plenty of brands and types to choose from when it comes to paracord. This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best paracord, tested each of them, and the results are in: the overall best, a budget option, a military-sourced cord, a minicord (Type I) option, and an upgrade pick. If you need paracord that will earn its keep in a survival situation, one of our suggestions will hold the line.

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Contents (Jump to a Section)

• Best Paracord
• Budget Paracord
• Military Paracord
• Survival Paracord
• Mini Paracord
• Comparison Table
• The Paracord We Compared
• Why Trust TruePrepper
• What to Look For
  • Value: Cost vs. Benefit
  • Strength
  • Elasticity
  • Durability
  • Versatility
• How to Use Paracord for Survival
• Who Needs Paracord?
• Sources & References
• Conclusion

In this latest update of the best paracord, more pictures have been added, and new selections have been made. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»

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Hailing from Ohio, Atwood Rope Mfg is made right here in the heart of the USA with exacting quality standards. While you can get some straightforward paracord from these guys, they also mix it up with plenty of patterns and colors to pick from- including custom if you contact them directly.

Specifications

• Rating: Type III
• Tensile Strength: 550 lbs
• Material: Nylon
• Core Strands: 7
• Colors/Patterns: 1,000+ options
• Manufactured: United States

Getting some solid Made-in-USA parachute cord for $10 on 100 feet is not a bad pickup, and it gets the job done. The downside is that the cord is not made to MILSPEC- the 7 core inner strands are 2 braids instead of 3. Those braids are thicker, though, so you aren’t compromising strength, durability, or elasticity. You lose some versatility in that you get 25% less length if you completely disassemble the paracord down to the braid strands (but include the jacket length).

Still, it performed great in our strength and durability testing, especially in the dynamic abrasion and cut-resistance tests. We’re impressed to see a US manufacturer hit such a low price point for a hank of paracord, and the quality matches expectations from a domestic supplier.

Atwood Rope Mfg Paracord gives us a solid cordage option without breaking the bank to get it in all of our kits. It is a 550-pound tensile-strength cord, making it more than capable of holding up a tarp, tying down gear, or improvising in a survival situation.

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XBEN overspecs paracord to give great performance at an unbeatable price by using polyester instead of nylon.

Specifications

• Rating: Type IV
• Tensile Strength: 1000 lbs
• Material: Polyester
• Core Strands: 13
• Colors/Patterns: 9 options
• Manufactured: China

It’s overbuilt, designed to a Type-IV rating with a 1000-lb (theoretical) load. While we can’t vouch for the full weight rating, our testing showed that it’ll surpass Type-3 cords in strength, looking at the inner-strand strength alone.

The polyester certainly isn’t MILSPEC, and is less durable than nylon in dynamic applications. But polyester does hold up well in some instances, like outdoor weathering and UV resistance.

The jacket is also not as thick as you would expect for a Type-IV cord, but the inner strands are still what you would expect. This makes the jacket tighter, less flexible, and less elastic since it isn’t loose around the inner strands. While it is still somewhat elastic (and we didn’t weigh elasticity very high in our overall score), it does make this cord perform worse for project work, like paracord bracelets, slings, etc.

XBEN 1000 Paracord gives us a solid budget option without breaking the bank. It also goes on sale quite often, so check to see if it’s an even better deal than when we tested it.

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MILSPEC and military-approved are two different things. This cord is both. MILSPEC is a lot more common- it just means that a paracord is designed to MILitary SPECifications. But, for the military to buy it, it has to pass testing and have the manufacturer approved under the National Stock Number (NSN) for logistics to procure it. Over the entirety of paracord’s existence, only 16 manufacturers have been approved- and only 3 are current.

Specifications

• Rating: Type III
• Tensile Strength: 550 lbs
• Material: Nylon
• Core Strands: 7 + marker
• Colors/Patterns: 6 options
• Manufactured: United States

5col is a local defense supplier right here, where TruePrepper is based in Durham, NC. They source gear and equipment for the US military, SAR teams, first responders, etc- but also sell to civilian consumers. They are GSA-approved and have a CAGE code, meaning they work with DoD (Department of Defense) and DLA (Defense Logistics Agency).

5col sells the same Type III paracord to the military under NSN 4020-00-262-2147. Since MILSPEC is a design spec outlined by MIL-C-5040H (in our reference section), the cord certainly meets those standards. Because it’s approved, it has also been tested by military labs and checked for strength, splices per spool, weathering durability, and more.

When submitted to test, the cord gets a manufacturer-specific marker on an inner strand. This marker strand is the main identifier for the approval and is also present in our upgrade pick (under a different NSN). In 2015, Andy and Beth (owners of 5col) had to switch out of Miltex (also in NC) to Gladding and Hope Global as manufacturers, since Miltex shut down. With military-approved manufacturers dwindling, getting cord used by the military outside of surplus shops is a pretty narrow lane.

If you want to rely on a thoroughly tested cord that the military uses and trusts, 5col Survival Supply Paracord gives civilians a military-approved solution.

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When this first came out several years ago, we had to pick it up to see what it was about. The concept is cool, but the execution is even better. This stuff holds up on conventional applications for years and is still ready to go if you need to break it apart for the internal components.

Specifications

• Rating: Type III
• Tensile Strength: 620 lbs
• Material: Nylon
• Core Strands: 7 + 3 unique
• Colors/Patterns: 25 options
• Manufactured: United States

TITAN SurvivorCord changed the game when it came to versatile cordage. We’ve been using and testing ours practically since 2017, and it’s still standing the test of time. The cord is strong, durable, and insanely versatile. We do prefer the original SurvivorCord over the newer SurvivorCordXT because we find the original to be more versatile- and it costs less to boot.

The three unique internal strands are made up of:

• Monofilament 25lb fishing line
• Waxed jute firestarter (2mm)
• 30 AWG multi-purpose conductive brass wire (snares, antennae, wraps, etc)

Those strands pair up with your normal 3-ply braided 7 strands to give you a whopping 620lb test (Type III) paracord.

You may also notice in the pictures that one of the inner strands is a marker. The SurvivalCord marker is red/white, and the SurvivalCordXT marker is yellow/black. As we talked about above in our previous pick, this is because SurvivorCord is military-approved and was developed in tandem with special forces deployed in Afghanistan. It was ordered under the more general NSN 4020-00-246-0688.

We did test the newer generic SurvivorCord types that have been popping up, but we were not impressed when we looked inside the jackets. None of them included wire or monofilament, citing flexibility as the reason. While those do affect flexibility, the true reason is cost.

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Mini cord is a smaller version of paracord, or sometimes a misleading regular rope. This is the real deal, though, with an outer jacket and inner strand. It weighs less than half compared to Type III paracord and takes up less space in a pack. It’s great for lanyards, pull strings, and other small applications where larger paracord may be overkill.

Specifications

• Rating: Type I
• Tensile Strength: 95 lbs
• Material: Nylon
• Core Strands: 1
• Colors/Patterns: 93 options
• Manufactured: United States

Get yourself a spool of this in a muted color, and you’ll have plenty of cord for all of your kits and more. Of course, you could pick from any of the other 70 colors/patterns they have going on if you need to splash in a high-vis option.

The Paracord Planet 95 paracord has a 95-pound minimum strength, classifying it as a Type I paracord. It is made according to the original military spec with one twisted interior line. Like all types of paracord, it is lightweight, easy to handle and tie, and strong enough to handle most jobs.

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Comparison Table

Paracord	Recomendation	Price*	Type	Load	Best Feature
Atwood Rope Mfg	Overall Best	$12	III	550	Durability
XBEN 1000	Best for Budgets	$7	IV	1000	Price
5col 550	Best Military-Grade	$23	III	550	Military-Approved
Titan Survivorcord	Best Survival Paracord	$35	III	620	Versatility
Paracord Planet Mini	Best Mini Paracord	$12	I	95	Lightweight
Teceum		$6	III	550	Lowest-Cost Nylon
Werewolves		$6	III	550	Hank Strap
VVAAGG		$7	III	550	Hank Strap
Amazon Basics		$9	III	550	Nylon
Extreme Max		$9	III	550	Nylon
Hercules		$10	III	550	Nylon
Vitaluxe 1000		$10	IV	1000	12 Strands
Ozark Trail		$10	III	550	Widely Available
Ozark Trail 1100		$10	IV	1100	Widely Available
PSKOOK Survival		$11	III	550	Lowest-Cost Survival
Paracord Planet		$14	III	550	US-Made MILSPEC
Gear Aid		$15	III	550	Reflective
Coghlan’s		$16	III	550	Nylon
WildAir Survival		$17	III	550	3 ‘Survival’ Strands
Tough-Grid		$18	III	550	US-Made MILSPEC
Texas Bushcraft Firecraft		$20	III	550	3 Survival Strands
Three Vikings 1000		$20	IV	1000	US-Made MILSPEC
Zippo Firefast		$26	III	550	Red Parrafin Strand
Titan SurvivorcordXT		$48	IV	1000	Kevlar Strand

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The Paracord We Compared

There are a lot of brands that make paracord these days, with a wide range of prices and quality/durability. In a survival situation, you want your paracord to be dependable, so we focused quite a bit on durability and quality. You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.

We only tested a few popular cheap recreational cords, because the performance and the durability are not going to be where we need them and there are too many different brands getting drop shipped from China. Also, anything that didn’t fit the standard ‘Type’ rating of paracord (more on that below), we didn’t consider because it is probably not paracord at that point. There were still plenty of options to consider in the outdoor survival space.

In our latest update, we picked up a few brands suggested in the comments and in our social channels to see how they measured up. Unfortunately, the cheaper options were disappointing, with many not meeting their stated strength ratings. Having a paracord designed to MILSPEC is one thing, but being military-approved is another. That is why we also added a section introducing a cord made by a military-approved manufacturer.

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Why Trust TruePrepper

I’m Sean Gold, and I’ve been using paracord for as long as I can remember and testing it for several years now. In my time in the military, we would use spools of paracord for a wide range of tasks every day.

As a deployment manager in the Air Force, I procured paracord regularly to fill out deployment kits. Testing the cords is always interesting, and my favorite part of the project has been the weathering test.

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What to Look For

The best paracord has several important features to look for. We tested to gather data for these important features so that we could compare the huge range of brands and types of cords. We weighed the metrics to create overall scores for each type of cord that we tested.

1. Value
2. Strength – 40% of overall score weight
3. Elasticity – 10% weight
4. Durability – 35% weight
5. Versatility – 15% weight

When you get the right blend of these, you can find a reliable paracord that will pull its weight in an emergency. Below, we break down what each of these features means for a truly dependable survival paracord:

Value: Cost vs. Benefit

The amount of money you spend on something like cordage shouldn’t blow out your budget. Having one is better than having none, but the same applies to other tools and gear you may need for an emergency. Budget according to your risk and your needs rather than just spending lavishly.

On the flip side, you don’t want to go too cheap. Type I 95-pound paracord you might find in a premade survival bracelet won’t hold a candle compared with our picks. Don’t get stranded in the wild with paracord that can’t hold a tarp down in the wind.

You never want to spend too much money on one resource, especially something like paracord. It’s better to diversify your tools and preparedness gear to make sure you are covered for a wide range of scenarios. There is a sweet spot where you get high value out of the best features with not too high a price, which is where our top pick sits.

Strength

In the paracord world, strength is described by a designated Type. There are other factors that go into each ‘Type’, but the minimum strength for each is:

• Type I = 95 pounds (43 kg)
• Type II = 400 pounds (180 kg)
• Type III = 550 pounds (250 kg)
• Type IV = 750 pounds (340 kg)

These are minimums, so while our upgrade pick is rated at a higher strength than our other picks, it still is categorized as a Type III paracord. Higher strength can make it bulkier, but also increases its potential applications and uses in life-contingent scenarios.

Most of the paracord outclassed our typical load testing equipment, so we used the manufacturer’s certified strength. However, we did test the individual strands inside for tensile strength using the crane scale to help us verify their claims and set their strength score relative to the claims.

We weighed the claimed tensile strength of the entire paracord against our measured internal strand tests to grade each paracord with a strength rating. The strands ranged between 30-pound static load up to 80 pounds. The jackets of Type 3 paracord typically will hold around 200 pounds alone.

A few of the higher-strength claims on cheaper paracord are questionable, given how their internal strands performed, but we don’t have the equipment to disprove them, needing over 1000 pounds of static force. This is one reason we decided to use a score metric rather than manufacturer claims.

The crane scale was also helpful with the entire strand of paracord to measure elasticity, which the jacket helps provide.

Elasticity

To be rated as a ‘Type’ of paracord, it needs to have at least 30% elongation. This stretch is a key characteristic of paracord and is one reason it is so easy to work with. This was easy to measure since we could tie unloaded paracord knots 10 inches apart, and then load them to 100 pounds with our crane scale and measure the new distance between the knots.

We’ll get into it more when we discuss durability, but the nylon cords have slightly better performance than polyester with stretching under load. This helps the cord be dynamic and meet the actual MILSPEC elasticity standards.

One interesting note on elasticity was the cords with snare wire inside. We were curious how ‘survival paracord’ would perform in the elasticity test, and it stretched out fine, but the paracord became extremely stiff after it stretched and did not recover. Keep that in mind if you plan to load any paracord with multipurpose wire inside- it will not be as pliable afterward.

If you want more elasticity, you’re looking at bungee cords or shock cords (which have over 100% elongation). Less elasticity and you’re looking at twine, like tarred bank line- another survivalist favorite.

Durability

The construction of the paracord lets you know about the quality and durability of the line. Paracord is made of a woven nylon ‘jacket’ of strands with 7-9 strands running through the center (for Type III). The center strands are typically made of 2-3 twisted or braided lines. The jacket and the inner strands work together to be elastic but also very strong.

Durability is also where the nylon vs. polyester comes into play. Typically, you see polyester on lower-cost paracord coming from China. Both materials have their pros and cons, though, as we discovered during testing.

Abrasion Testing

The jacket also serves to protect the inner cords from abrasion. Since the jacket is looser than the inner cords, it is meant to help the cord run along trees, rocks, and other abrasive surfaces without issue. This is the part of durability that we tested, using 80-grit sandpaper and seeing how many strikes it took to get through the outer jacket.

Nylon outperformed polyester significantly in this test. Polyester is more ‘grippy’, which makes it work great with tight knots and bracelets- but it also makes it more prone to snagging and fraying over time. Here are two cords made of different materials after only 10 strikes on sandpaper:

Cut Test

Similar to abrasion testing, this test was designed with jacket durability in mind. We lined up a razor blade with a ramping angle to see how easily a paracord could be nicked when it was pulled through it.

Keeping the same tension on the cord, most of them rode up the blade without being cut- a function of the elasticity as well as the durability of the jacket. Similar to the abrasion test, nylon outperformed polyester. Even still, only a few polyester jackets snagged on the blade, resulting in pulled fibers rather than a clean cut. Our blade wasn’t exactly sharp, but it served the purpose of this test well.

Weathering

We also have a long-running test of the various paracords attached to a 2×4 length of wood. It’s left in the elements all year long, and we snap pictures to check fading from UV exposure, effects from mildew/rot, and other weather-related wear and tear.

Polyester cords have better UV resistance, making them better when exposed to sunlight indefinitely. So far in the weathering test, they have faded less than the nylon cords. We expect nylon to have a tougher time with moisture and mildew over time, but we haven’t identified any moisture issues with any of the paracords after a year of testing.

Between this passive environmental exposure testing and our active abrasion tests and cut tests, we were able to put together a durability score for every type of paracord.

Our final verdict on polyester paracord is that it will be just fine in static applications, like making a clothesline you plan to keep up indefinitely. It will handle sun and weather exposure better than nylon in the long run.

For survival applications, nylon is superior because of its flexibility and durability under dynamic tests- like abrasion and cut resistance. It has longer-term reusability and will work better for survival kits and bug out bags.

Versatility

When your paracord is stronger and has more strands, you get some increased versatility out of it because you can use it in more applications. Our upgrade pick pushes this boundary by replacing some of the internal strands with a useful variety of lines.

Survival Cord

Titan did it first, and did it best (so far) with their patented survival cord developed for the military. It is interesting to note that their SurvivorCordXT does not include snare wire, replacing it instead with a strong Kevlar strand.

One drawback to Titan’s patented SurvivorCord and SurvivorCordXT is that some of the strands hinder flexibility and elasticity. We didn’t see any other brand include actual wire in their cord. The Chinese brands and Texas Bushcraft choose to add similar survival additions in polyethylene fishing line, thread, and waxed cotton/jute. None of these hinders movement like wire, Kevlar, or monofilament. Still, the added benefits of wire outperform these concerns.

So far, in our testing, we’ve encountered:

• Fishing line (monofilament, braid, polyethylene) ranging from 10-40lb test
• Waxed tinder (red, white, or natural cotton/jute)
• Kevlar line (110 lb)
• Wire (Brass, 30AWG)
• Sewing thread (waxed/unwaxed cotton)

Patterns and Colors

Military-approved paracord only has a half-dozen colors. Natural and camouflage green are the colors you’ll see most in service because they are specifically listed in MIL-C-5040H, but they are missing out. There are thousands of color and pattern options out there- including reflective, glow-in-the-dark, and even color-changing.

If you are looking for paracord with a specific purpose in mind, getting a color that works best is a great idea. Typically muted colors like the camo green from the military are best for survival. While we tested some bright colors (mostly to better judge different jacket material weathering), we kept foliage green and black in our survival kits.

Some argue that bright paracord is great for getting attention, but you may not always want attention when you have a need for cordage. There are better tools for signaling than paracord, including bandanas, mylar sheets, signal mirrors, etc.

Accessories

Many brands, even some cheap ones, will include useful accessories with hanks and spools of paracord. One of the most common is the hank strap, a hook-and-loop fastener that works very well to keep the cord together and untangled. We preferred these to the ziplock bags some were shipped in, which can work for storage too, but are much less durable.

Some brands, like Zippo and Gear Aid, include a carabiner with the hanks. The clips aren’t high quality, but they’re enough to help keep them organized and set up quick attachment points.

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How to Use Paracord for Survival

The many, many uses for paracord often end up being a type of inside joke in the prepping and survival community. Besides hanging tarps and lashing tools to your bag, you can figure out how to do pretty much anything with paracord.

The inherent stretch makes it forgiving when tying knots and allows it to be easily reused. The strands that make up the paracord let you take it apart to make it even longer or thinner. These are a few of the reasons why it caught on for ‘survivalist’ bracelets.

While the uses for paracord might be limitless, Craig Caudill has fun here showing us 101 ways to use it:

101 Uses of Paracord - Survival, Homesteading and Zombies

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Who Needs Paracord?

Everyone can use paracord. It has endless uses in the outdoors and is pretty handy inside as well.

Paracord is so versatile that it’s no wonder it shows up in almost all of our survival kit checklists.

We consider paracord essential for these kits:

• Home Survival Kit
• Bug Out Bag
• Get Home Bag

We highly suggest putting paracord in these kits:

• Everyday Carry
• Car Kit

Paracord is useful beyond emergencies and survival kits, too, of course. It can come in handy while you are camping, on the road, tying gear down, organizing tools- the list is practically endless.

Sources & References

All of our experience and the testing we do to determine the best paracord is useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:

Army Military Staff College. (1994). MIL-C-5040H Paracord Military Specification. (View PDF)

Bennett, D., et al. (2001). A noose trap for catching a large arboreal lizard, Varanus Olivaceus. Herpetelogical Review (St. Louis). Volume 32, Issue 3, Page 167. (Source).

Bequette, B., et al. (2017). Belts Evaluated as Limb Tourniquets: BELT Study Comparing Trouser Supporters Used as Medical Devices in a Manikin Model of Wound Bleeding. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. Volume 28, Issue 2, Pages 84 – 93. (Source)

Epple, H., et al. (1972). Load Measurements in Parachute Cords. Defense Technical Information Center. (Source)

Mandell, J., et al. (1987). Fatigue and Environmental Resistance of Polyester and Nylon Fibers. Polymer Engineering and Science. Volume 27, Issue 15, Pages 1121 – 1127. (Source)

Mills Manufacturing. (2015). Miltex Industries Paracord Division Discontinued. (Source)

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Conclusion

Parachute cord was there for the greatest generation dropping in behind enemy lines on D-Day and we’re lucky to have it available to us for our own survival needs. It isn’t the only cordage you can use for survival, though: Paracord Alternatives for Survival.

To go along with cordage, you should also consider a few other tools that can help you keep things put together:

• The Best Survival Zip Ties for Emergencies and Prepping
• The Best Duct Tape for Emergencies and Survival
• Bug Out Bag List | 44 Essentials

See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.

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