Free fonts similar to Calibri
Calibri is familiar from years of Word documents and Outlook emails. Its softly rounded corners make it warmer than Arial. On the web it only appears for visitors who have it installed, so you need a substitute that keeps documents and emails from reflowing.
Short answer: the closest free alternative to Calibri is Carlito. Open Sans and Lato are also worth a look. All are open source and free for commercial use.
Calibri is not installed on this device, so it cannot be drawn here. The free alternatives below are live. On a device that has it, this row shows the original and unlocks the overlay.
/* Carlito is open source. Self-host it or load it from Google Fonts. */ font-family: "Carlito", Calibri, Carlito, "Segoe UI", sans-serif;
The alternatives in detail
1. CarlitoMetric-compatible
Why it works. Metric-compatible with Calibri. Every character has the same width, so documents and emails keep their line breaks.
What differs. The shapes are its own, based on Lato, so corners are crisper than Calibri’s rounded ones.
2. Open Sans
Why it works. A friendly humanist sans that gives a similar approachable tone on the web.
What differs. Noticeably wider, so text takes more space and lines break sooner.
3. Lato
Why it works. Warm, slightly rounded details that come close to Calibri’s personality.
What differs. Wider than Calibri, with a more stylish character at large sizes.
How to recognize Calibri
Lucas de Groot, released in 2007 as the default font of Microsoft Office, a role it held until Aptos replaced it in 2023.
- Subtly rounded stroke endings and corners.
- Compact and narrow, so it fits more words per line than Arial.
- A true italic with flowing, handwritten shapes.
Is Calibri free?
Ships with Microsoft Office and Windows. It is not licensed for web embedding, and it is missing on most Macs without Office, phones and Linux.
The alternatives on this page are open source, so you can use them on commercial sites, self-host the files and ship them in products. Read more in font licensing in plain English.
Use Carlito in your CSS
Put the free font first and keep sensible fallbacks behind it. Self-hosting the files is the most private and usually the fastest option.
@font-face {
font-family: "Carlito";
src: url("/fonts/carlito-400.woff2") format("woff2");
font-weight: 400;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Carlito";
src: url("/fonts/carlito-700.woff2") format("woff2");
font-weight: 700;
font-display: swap;
}
body {
font-family: "Carlito", Calibri, Carlito, "Segoe UI", sans-serif;
}Saw a font you can’t place, or can’t afford?
Font Inspector names the font on any website in one click. For popular paid and system fonts it suggests free look-alikes right in the panel.
Questions & answers
What is the closest free font to Calibri?+
Carlito is the closest free alternative to Calibri. Metric-compatible with Calibri. Every character has the same width, so documents and emails keep their line breaks. Open Sans and Lato are also worth testing.
Is Calibri free to use?+
Ships with Microsoft Office and Windows. It is not licensed for web embedding, and it is missing on most Macs without Office, phones and Linux.
What Google Font looks like Calibri?+
On Google Fonts, the nearest matches are Carlito, Open Sans and Lato. All are open source and free for commercial use. None is an exact copy, so compare them with your own text first.
Which alternative keeps my layout from changing?+
Carlito is metric-compatible with Calibri. Each character has the same width, so line breaks and page counts stay the same when you swap fonts.
How can I tell whether a website uses Calibri?+
Inspect the text. Browser DevTools show the rendered font in the Computed tab, and the Font Inspector extension shows the family, the rendered font and free look-alikes in one click.
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