A drill bit is not a generic pointy thing. The shape of the tip decides whether the hole comes out clean, whether the bit survives the job, and whether you finish in ten seconds or ten smoky minutes. Match the bit to the material — wood, metal, or masonry — and drilling gets boring in the good way. The tool holding the bit matters too: most of these belong in a drill/driver rather than an impact driver, and if you're still sorting out which tool to own, our cordless drill vs impact driver comparison explains which one takes which bits.
Technique matters as much as the bit here. Metal wants a slow speed, steady pressure, and a drop of cutting oil on steel. Run a metal bit at full trigger and it overheats, the edge turns blue, and it's finished — a blue bit is a dead bit. Ease off, let the flutes clear the chips, and the same bit will drill steel for years. One specialty bit earns its drawer space the day a screw head rounds out: the screw extractor, made to bite into a damaged head and back it out — the full rescue is our guide to removing a stripped screw.
A hammer drill is not the same tool as an impact driver, whatever the combo-kit box on the shelf implies. Our impact driver vs hammer drill breakdown shows which tool actually puts a hole in a foundation wall.
Drywall is soft gypsum — any twist bit sails through it, and for hanging things, the anchor matters far more than the bit. That principle is the whole game in hanging a heavy mirror without a stud: ordinary bit, correct anchor. Old-house plaster is the opposite problem. It's brittle, and it cracks or blows out in chunks if you bully it. Drill slowly with a masonry bit and the hammer action off to get through the plaster coat, then switch to a wood bit for the lath behind it.
| Material | First choice | Also works | Don't use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood, clean holes | Brad-point | Twist bit | Masonry bit — cuts slowly and tears the surface |
| Metal | HSS twist (black oxide or titanium) | Cobalt, for stainless | Brad-point — the spike skates across steel and the spurs chip |
| Brick, block, concrete | Carbide masonry bit in a hammer drill | SDS bit in a rotary hammer | Wood or metal bits — the edge is dead within seconds |
| Ceramic or porcelain tile | Diamond or spear-point bit, hammer off | — | Masonry bit with hammer on — cracks the tile outward from the hole |
| Plastic, laminate | Brad-point at slow speed | Sharp twist bit | Spade bit — grabs, melts, or cracks the piece |
One bit for everything. A masonry bit in wood and an HSS bit in concrete are both just ways to buy the same bit twice.
Hammer mode on tile. The bit is right and the setting is wrong. Porcelain cracks in a star pattern around the hole. Hammer stays off until you're through the tile and into what's behind it.
Full speed on metal. Heat is the enemy of every cutting edge. Slow down, add oil on steel, and let the bit do the cutting.
Skipping the pilot hole. Large spade and Forstner bits behave far better following a small pilot hole, and on metal a pilot keeps a big bit from skating across the surface and scratching a spiral into your workpiece.
Pushing harder on a dull bit. A sharp bit cuts under light pressure. If you're leaning your weight on the drill, the bit is telling you it's done.
Three bits cover nearly every hole in a house: brad-point for wood, HSS for metal, carbide for masonry. Everything else in this guide is refinement — bigger holes, cleaner holes, faster holes in specific materials. When you're standing in the aisle unsure, look at the tip: a spike means wood, a plain twist means metal, a gray paddle means masonry.
In a pinch, on thin, soft metal, at slow speed — but the brad point's sharp spurs will chip and the bit will dull fast. HSS twist bits are the right tool, and they're the flexible ones: an HSS bit drills metal as its day job and handles wood perfectly well when asked.
Heat. Too much speed, too much pressure, or an edge that was already dull overheated the steel until its temper gave up — that's the blue color. Once a bit has blued, it won't hold an edge again. Slow the drill down, use cutting oil on metal, and swap bits before they get there.
A diamond hole saw or a spear-point glass-and-tile bit, with the hammer function off. Porcelain is harder than ceramic and eats lesser bits. Keep the cut wet or pause often to cool the bit, and let the abrasive do the work instead of forcing it.
A carbide bit in a regular drill will get you a small hole or two in mortar joints or soft brick, slowly. For repeated holes, harder brick, or any real concrete, you want a hammer drill — and for a run of holes in a foundation, a rented rotary hammer with SDS bits turns an afternoon of fighting into twenty minutes of work.
The size printed on the anchor's package — the bit matches the outside diameter of the anchor body, commonly 3/16 or 1/4 inch for the plastic anchors in most kits. Drill a size too big and the anchor spins in its hole instead of gripping; a size too small and it won't seat without splitting something.