Photos of Plantar Warts on Feet

Pictures of warts on your feet can help you to identify plantar warts, as some growths can look like warts even if they’re not. Plantar warts are caused by a virus and usually need treatment to go away. Plantar wart treatment can be an over-the-counter wart removal product or a procedure done by a healthcare provider. 

This article includes photos and detailed descriptions of plantar warts. It explains how to tell if you have a plantar wart on your foot and what plantar wart treatment you may need. 

What a Plantar Wart Looks Like

Wart on foot

Tim Oram / Getty Images

While warts on your hands and other parts of your body vary in how they look, plantar warts on your feet pretty much all look the same. They have basic characteristics, though they can be of different sizes.

These are common traits of plantar warts:

  • Round: Because they are circular, plantar warts can easily be mistaken for corns or calluses.
  • Flat: Plantar warts are usually flat, not raised like other growths.
  • Rough, tough outer layer: Planter warts are covered by the tough skin from the sole of your foot and can have a rough, grainy surface texture.
  • Little black dots near the center: This characteristic feature of plantar warts is actually the wart’s blood supply.

Plantar warts most often form on the heel or ball of your foot where you put your weight when you’re standing or walking. They may stay small or grow quite large.

Plantar Wart vs. Callus

A growth on your foot may look like a wart but actually it may be something else. For example, plantar warts are commonly mistaken for calluses. Here’s how you can tell a wart from a callus.

Wart

  • Breaks up the normal skin lines
  • Small black "seed" dots (capillary blood supply)
  • Painful when squeezed on the sides

Callus

  • Skin lines continue through the hard, dead skin
  • No dots, no blood supply
  • Painful when pushed on directly

What Do Multiple Warts Look Like?

Plantar warts

Marionette / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Warts can appear alone or in clusters. A cluster of warts is called a "mosaic wart." A large cluster of warts can be very painful and make it uncomfortable to walk or run. It's generally harder and takes longer to treat a cluster of warts.

Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), which infects the upper layer of skin (epidermis). Once the sole of your foot is infected with the virus, you can get multiple warts (a cluster or mosaic warts). 

Can Vaccines Prevent Plantar Warts?

Currently, there are HPV vaccines available to prevent against certain strains of the virus that cause genital warts and cervical cancer. 

Researchers have found that patients with plantar warts may see the warts clear up after getting the HPV vaccines. However, this was not the case for all patients.

Another study also found that HPV vaccines seemed to help some people with recurrent warts (including plantar warts) but, again, they did not help everyone with them.

Experts think that more research is needed to find out if HPV vaccines could help prevent or treat plantar warts. 

When to Contact Your Healthcare Provider

Plantar warts can go away on their own without treatment. You may be able to get rid of them quickly with an over-the-counter (OTC) that uses salicylic acid to remove the layers of the wart slowly. Most people do not need to see a healthcare provider for plantar warts treatment unless the warts don’t go away on their own or with OTC products.

However, some people should tell their providers right away if they get a wart, including those who have:

If the wart changes appearance or color, if it is bleeding, or if you have multiple warts, you should also call your provider. They can use a stronger preparation of salicylic acid to get rid of the wart. You may also need cryotherapy, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze off the warts. For some people, immune therapy, minor surgery, or laser treatment are needed to get rid of plantar warts. 

Summary

If you’re trying to figure out if a growth on your foot is a plantar wart or something else, look for the characteristic flat, rough circle with black "seeds" in the center.

You can often use OTC medication to get rid of a wart at home, but if it doesn’t get better or you have an underlying health condition like diabetes, you should tell your provider about it.

8 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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  4. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. Warts: Overview.

  5. Kuan LY, Chua SH, Pan JY, Yew YW, Tan WP. The quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine in recalcitrant acral warts: a retrospective study. Ann Acad Med Singap. 2020;49(10):749-755. doi:10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.2020342

  6. Shin J, Son JH, Lee J, et al. Nonavalent human papilloma virus vaccine for the treatment of multiple recalcitrant warts: An open-label studyJournal of The American Academy of Dermatology. 2022;86(4):940-941. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2021.03.074

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  8. American Academy of Dermatology. Warts: Tips for Managing.

Additional Reading

By Terence Vanderheiden, DPM
Terence Vanderheiden, DPM, is a podiatrist in Massachusetts with a subspecialty in the area of podiatric sports medicine.