Godox ML40Bi vs Godox ML40R
Two of our picks from Best Godox Video Lights for Streaming and Vlogging: ML40Bi, ML40R, FL15Bi, LC500R and the EazyFlow Softboxes, compared side by side on the specs and trade-offs that actually matter.
Short answer
Between the Godox ML40Bi and the Godox ML40R, we recommend the Godox ML40Bi ($99 when we checked it on 2026-09-14) as the better godox video light for most people. A key light for a desk or a bag: bi-colour, battery and USB-C, app control. The Godox ML40R ($119 when we checked it on 2026-09-14) still makes sense if the same key light with full RGB for the day it points at the wall.
Godox ML40Bi Bi-Color LED Video Light, Portable Fill Light, App Control
$99.00observed
Lowest we have recorded: $89.00 on (4 weekly checks)
Godox ML40R RGB LED Video Light, Portable Full-Color Fill Light
$119.00observed
Lowest we have recorded: $109.00 on (4 weekly checks)
Our take on each
Godox ML40Bi
Best for: A key light for a desk or a bag: bi-colour, battery and USB-C, app control.
The Godox ML40Bi is the light to buy if a stream or a vlog needs one light. It is a compact COB with a built-in battery for a bag and a USB-C port for a desk, so the same light does both jobs. Colour temperature runs 2800 to 6500 K, which covers a face in any room, and the Godox app sets brightness and colour from a phone.
A metre from a face with the diffuser dome on, it reads as a proper key on a webcam and lifts a phone camera out of grain. Bare, it is hard light; budget for a small softbox or use the dome.
It is a new listing with a handful of ratings; the ML series before it has years of them. The mount is Godox's small ML ring, not Bowens, so a softbox needs the adapter. Owners rate it 5.0 across its first 6 reviews.
Godox ML40R
Best for: The same key light with full RGB for the day it points at the wall.
The Godox ML40R is the ML40Bi with full colour. Same body, same battery, same USB-C, same app; the difference is an RGB mode with saturation control and a set of effects, so it can be a key light on Monday and a coloured background light on Tuesday.
As a key it performs the same as the Bi. As a background light it is small, so it colours a patch of wall rather than a whole room; for a wall, the LC500R tube spreads further. Buy the R only if the light will change jobs.
Owners rate it 5.0 across its first 4 reviews, which is to say it is new.
More from this guide
We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Commissions never change our picks.