diff --git a/doc/filters.texi b/doc/filters.texi
index b89ba96351..0dc928889d 100644
--- a/doc/filters.texi
+++ b/doc/filters.texi
@@ -7119,6 +7119,10 @@ Set the inner border thickness (i.e. the number of pixels between frames). For
 more advanced padding options (such as having different values for the edges),
 refer to the pad video filter.
 
+@item color
+Specify the color of the unused area, it can be the name of a color
+(case insensitive match) or a 0xRRGGBB[AA] sequence.
+The default value of @var{color} is "black".
 @end table
 
 @subsection Examples
diff --git a/libavfilter/vf_tile.c b/libavfilter/vf_tile.c
index f5eb763201..fb3ac859c4 100644
--- a/libavfilter/vf_tile.c
+++ b/libavfilter/vf_tile.c
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ typedef struct {
     FFDrawContext draw;
     FFDrawColor blank;
     AVFrame *out_ref;
+    uint8_t rgba_color[4];
 } TileContext;
 
 #define REASONABLE_SIZE 1024
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@ static const AVOption tile_options[] = {
         AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1024, FLAGS },
     { "padding", "set inner border thickness in pixels", OFFSET(padding),
         AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.i64 = 0}, 0, 1024, FLAGS },
+    { "color",   "set the color of the unused area", OFFSET(rgba_color), AV_OPT_TYPE_COLOR, {.str = "black"}, .flags = FLAGS },
     {NULL},
 };
 
@@ -113,8 +115,7 @@ static int config_props(AVFilterLink *outlink)
     outlink->frame_rate = av_mul_q(inlink->frame_rate,
                                    (AVRational){ 1, tile->nb_frames });
     ff_draw_init(&tile->draw, inlink->format, 0);
-    /* TODO make the color an option, or find an unified way of choosing it */
-    ff_draw_color(&tile->draw, &tile->blank, (uint8_t[]){ 0, 0, 0, -1 });
+    ff_draw_color(&tile->draw, &tile->blank, tile->rgba_color);
 
     outlink->flags |= FF_LINK_FLAG_REQUEST_LOOP;