Techniques are described for performing constrained three-dimensional (3D) color prediction for color gamut scalability in video coding. Color prediction techniques for color gamut scalability may be used by video coders to generate inter-layer reference pictures when a color gamut for a reference layer of video data is different than a color gamut for an enhancement layer of the video data, or when a bit depth of the reference layer is different than a bit depth of the enhancement layer. According to the techniques, a video coder may perform 3D color prediction with constrained bit depths of input and output color components of the 3D lookup table. According to further techniques, in the case of multiple layers, a video coder may perform 3D color prediction with constrained application to reference pictures in only one or more identified reference layers.