Color balance refers to the intensity and accuracy of color in a photograph. An image that is considered to be “balanced” is one where colors and brightness accurately match those found in the scene.
White balance is considered the most important aspect of color balance and specifies the intensity and accuracy of neutral colors (white to black, and shades in between).
Auto White Balance
Automatic white balance is a function of digital cameras. When set to auto white balance (often abbreviated to AWB), the camera assumes the given scene contains neutral colors, and adjusts the color balance to match that assumption. Often images taken using auto white balance will have an inaccurate color temperature when the scene contains no (or very little) elements that are neutral.
Color temperature
In photography, the color temperature usually refers to photos being either “warm” or “cold”. Cold photos have more blueish neutrals, warm photos will have more yellow or orangish neutrals.