Gel Pen Refill

Gel ink creates a wetter, more saturated line than ballpoint ink, because the pigment is held in suspension in a water-based gel, not dissolved in an oil paste. It also comes in colors ballpoint rarely does, like the Pilot G2 refills here in teal, turquoise, caramel and lime. Ballpoint ink tends to handle glossy and highly fibrous paper better, so consider what materials you write with when choosing between the two inks.

Not entirely, since refill formats are only partly standardized. Monteverde's capless Parker-style gel refill is listed as compatible with pens from brands like Aurora, Diplomat, Parker, Pelikan, Retro 51 and Visconti. Pilot G2 refills commonly fit Pilot's G2, Dr. Grip Gel and B2P Gel pens, while FriXion refills are made for Pilot's refillable FriXion pens.

Pull the old refill out and read the markings on its barrel, which normally show the manufacturer and a model code you can search up. If it's unmarked, measure the refill's overall length and barrel and tip diameters to find what format you need. If your pen turns out to take a rollerball or a fountain pen cartridge, those sit alongside gel in our pen refills section. You can also call us at 800-963-PENS and we'll work out the match with you.

No, and the shared name trips up a lot of people. The Parker-style format is commonly called the G2 refill and runs about 98 mm, while a Pilot G2 refill is roughly 111 mm and won’t sit in a Parker-format pen. The Parker-style G2 refill in gel on this page is Monteverde's capless version, not a Parker-branded one.

Yes, as long as the two share a format. Monteverde's capless Parker-style gel refill is built for exactly that swap and claims a fit on over 90% of the ballpoint pens currently manufactured. Expect the pen to write wetter and to run dry sooner than it did on ballpoint ink.

A 0.7 mm tip works well for most daily handwriting. For dense note-taking, small handwriting, and anyone prone to smudging, a 0.5 mm is helpful. The finer tip lays down less ink, so it tends to dry faster and stretch a refill further at the cost of a slightly drier, more tactile stroke. Black G2 refills come in 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 mm, and blue additionally comes in 0.38, so you can move a step in either direction without switching pens.

Choose an erasable gel refill when you're writing something you expect to revise, like a planner, a lesson plan, or a working notebook. The erasable gel pen refills on this page are all Pilot FriXion, whose thermosensitive ink gets cleared under the eraser's friction. That heat sensitivity means the ink turns colorless above 140°F, so a hot car or a photocopier can clear a page, and may reappear if you cool the paper to around 14°F. Pilot advises against using FriXion on legal documents.

A gel pen refill runs out considerably faster than a ballpoint refill in the same pen. There is no fixed page count, since tip size and writing pressure both move it, though a 0.38 or 0.5 mm tip will stretch a refill noticeably further than a 1.0 mm one. Pilot says a G2 lasts around 4 times longer than a FriXion on similar ink volume. Pilot G2 refills here come in 2-packs and 6-packs, and the FriXion sets run up to 21 refills. If you want long intervals between swaps, ballpoint refills last far longer in the same pen body.