A boil is a deep, painful infection of a hair follicle. It keeps growing for several days, throbs on its own, and takes one to three weeks to clear. A pimple is a smaller, shallower blocked pore. It comes up in a day or two, peaks, and is gone within a week.
| The difference | Boil | Pimple |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A pocket of pus around a hair | A blocked pore |
| How much it hurts | A lot | Mildly |
| Do you feel unwell | Sometimes | No |
A boil involves the whole follicle and the tissue around it, so it sits proud of the skin and stays sore for days rather than hours. Compare the size of the red area to the lump itself — that spread is what makes a boil throb even when nothing is touching it.
A pimple is shallow, comes to a head quickly, and rarely arrives alone. The other small spots and the faded brown marks from earlier ones are the giveaway: this is acne on oily facial skin, not a single infected follicle.
Side by side
Boil
A pocket of pus around a hair
Bacteria — usually Staphylococcus aureus — get into a follicle. Your body walls them off. It is a small abscess.
Pimple
A blocked pore
Oil and dead skin plug the opening. Normal skin bacteria multiply in the trapped oil, and the area gets inflamed.
Boil
Pea-sized to golf-ball
Keeps growing over several days.
Pimple
Small
A few millimetres, and it stops growing quickly.
Boil
A lot
Throbs on its own, not just when pressed. Often too tender to lie on.
Pimple
Mildly
Sore if you press it. Easy to forget about otherwise.
Boil
One to three weeks
Builds for days, comes to a head, drains, then heals.
Pimple
Three to seven days
Boil
Where hair and friction meet
Back of the neck, armpits, groin, buttocks, thighs, waistband line.
Pimple
Where skin is oiliest
Face, chest, upper back, shoulders.
Boil
Sometimes
A large boil can come with fever or feeling generally run down.
Pimple
No
Boil
Warm compress, drain if it grows
Hold a warm damp cloth on it for ten minutes, three or four times a day. That helps it come to a head and drain on its own. If it keeps growing, a clinician can numb it and drain it. That gives immediate relief.
Pimple
Leave it alone, treat the skin
Use benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid on the area. It will resolve. Picking is what turns a three-day spot into a three-month mark.
Boil
Sometimes
Draining is the main treatment. Antibiotics are added for larger boils, spreading redness, fever, or certain locations. On their own they often will not clear a boil. The drug struggles to reach inside a walled-off pocket of pus.
Pimple
No
Not for an ordinary spot.
Boil
Often
Deeper damage, so more likely to leave a mark.
Pimple
Only if you pick it
Pimple
A zit and a pimple are the same thing. One word is casual, the other is slightly less casual. There is no medical difference. The medical terms describe the specific type:
Boil
Repeated boils in the armpits, groin, buttocks, or under the breasts are often not boils at all. Look at the pattern: the same few areas, over and over, sometimes with tunnels or scarring between them. That is hidradenitis suppurativa.
Boil
Squeezing a boil pushes bacteria deeper into the skin. That can spread the infection to nearby skin.
Pimple
Squeezing a pimple pushes the contents deeper into the skin. That makes the inflammation worse. It is the main reason spots leave brown marks and dents.
Common questions