Choosing A Cue Tip Diameter, From 9 mm To 14 mm

The number is set by the ferrule, not by preference

A tip has to match the ferrule it is glued to. Fit a 13 mm tip to an 11 mm ferrule and the overhang mushrooms within days, chips at the edge and starts gripping the ball off-centre. Fit a tip smaller than the ferrule and the leading edge of the ferrule takes impacts it was never meant to take. The range on this site publishes tips from 9 mm through 14 mm precisely so a room can order against the ferrules it already owns instead of against a photograph.

The small band: 9 mm to 11 mm

This is the English snooker and Chinese black eight band. A smaller tip contacts a smaller area of the ball, which makes side spin more precise and less forgiving at the same time. The small-tip cues published here sit at 9.5 mm, 10 mm and 11 mm, and the cue tip family carries matching 10 mm and 11 mm replacements, including 50-piece packs for rooms re-tipping a whole rack.

The middle band: 11.5 mm to 12.5 mm

Chinese-style cues and many medium-tip American cues live here. It is the compromise band: enough contact area to be forgiving on a firm stroke, small enough to still place side. Several cues in the pool cue family publish 12 mm and 12.5 mm figures, and a room standardising across mixed play often lands here.

The large band: 13 mm to 14 mm

American pool and house play. A larger tip spreads the contact patch, which makes a mis-hit less punishing and suits rooms where most players are casual. The 13 mm figure appears throughout the pool cue family; the cue tip family publishes 13 mm, 13.5 mm and 14 mm replacements, including multi-layer tips.

Break and jump cues sit outside the band logic

A break cue is not chosen on feel, it is chosen on survival. The jump and break cues here publish 13.8 mm tips, and break tips are deliberately hard because a soft tip absorbs energy the break is meant to deliver into the rack. Do not re-tip a break cue with a playing tip because the diameter happens to match.

How to order so the next order matches

Write the diameter down. A room that reorders by description ends up with three diameters in one rack and a re-tipping session that becomes a sorting exercise. Every tip page on this site publishes its diameter, whether the tip is multi-layer or single leather, and the pack quantity, which is everything you need to reorder the identical item a year later.