AWG - American Wire Gauge Current Ratings

Amp ratings vs. US AWG wire gauges.

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The AWG - American Wire Gauge - is used as a standard method denoting wire diameter, measuring the diameter of the conductor (the bare wire) with the insulation removed. AWG is sometimes also known as Brown and Sharpe (B&S) Wire Gauge.

The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor. Because of the small gaps between the strands in a stranded wire, a stranded wire with the same current-carrying capacity and electrical resistance as a solid wire, always have a slightly larger overall diameter.

The higher the number - the thinner the wire. Typical household wiring is AWG number 12 or 14. Telephone wire is typical AWG 22, 24, or 26.

The table below indicates the current ratings of PVC-insulated single and multicore wiring cables. Be aware that the current load depends on installation method - the enclosure - and how well the resistance heat is removed from the cable. Operating temperature of the conductor, ambient temperature and type of conductor insulation is important. Always check the manufactures data before detailed engineering.

For full table with Single Core and Multi Core Current Ratings - rotate the screen!

AWG	Diameter (mm)	Diameter (in)	Square (mm²)	Resistance Copper (ohm/1000m)	Resistance Aluminum (ohm/1000m)	Typical Max. Current Load Ratings - Copper (amps)¹⁾
						Single Core	Multicore
						Single Core	up to 3 cores	4 - 6 cores	7 - 24 cores	25 - 42 cores	43 and above
40	0.08	.	0.0050	3448	5300
39	0.09	.	0.0064	2693	4141
38	0.10	0.0040	0.0078	2210	3397
37	0.11	0.0045	0.0095	1810	2789
36	0.13	0.0050	0.013	1326	2038
35	0.14	0.0056	0.015	1120	1767
34	0.16	0.0063	0.020	862	1325
33	0.18	0.0071	0.026	663	1019
32	0.20	0.0080	0.031	556	855
30	0.25	0.010	0.049	352	541
28	0.33	0.013	0.080	216	331
27	0.36	0.014	0.096	180	276
26	0.41	0.016	0.13	133	204
25	0.45	0.018	0.16	108	166
24	0.51	0.020	0.20	88	133	3.5	2	1.6	1.4	1.2	1.0
22	0.64	0.025	0.33	52	80	5.0	3	2.4	2.1	1.8	1.5
20	0.81	0.032	0.50	34	53	6.0	5	4.0	3.5	3.0	2.5
18	1.0	0.040	0.82	21	32	9.5	7	5.6	4.9	4.2	3.5
16	1.3	0.051	1.3	13	20	15	10	8.0	7.0	6.0	5.0
14	1.6	0.064	2.1	8.2	13	24	15	12	10	9.0	7.5
13	1.8	0.072	2.6	6.6	10
12	2.1	0.081	3.3	5.2	8.0	34	20	16	14	12	10
10	2.6	0.10	5.3	3.3	5.0	52	30	24	21	18	15
8	3.3	0.13	8.3	2.1	3.2	75	40	32	28	24	20
6	4.1	0.17	13.3	1.3	2.0	95	55	44	38	33	27
4	5.2	0.20	21.2	0.81	1.3	120	70	56	49	42	35
3			26.7	0.65	0.99	154	80	64	56	48	40
2	6.5	0.26	33.6	0.51	0.79	170	95	76	66	57	57
1	7.4	0.29	42.4	0.41	0.63	180	110	88	77	66	55
0 (1/0)	8.3	0.33	53.5	0.32	0.50	200
00 (2/0)	9.3	0.37	67.4	0.26	0.39	225
000 (3/0)	10.4	0.41	85.0	0.20	0.32	275
0000 (4/0)	11.7	0.46	107	0.16	0.25	325
250			127			345
300			152			390
400			178			415

¹⁾ Current ratings for up to 1000 V, PVC-insulated single and multicore wiring cables, ambient temperature up to 30^oC

American Wire Gauge - AWG, Imperial and Metric Units

Download and print AWG chart

Values for resistance are based on electrical resistivity for copper 1.724 x 10^-8 Ω m (0.0174 μΩ m) and electrical resistivity for aluminum 2.65 x 10^-8 Ω m (0.0265 μΩ m).

prefixes

The higher the gauge number, the smaller the diameter, and the thinner the wire.

Because of less electrical resistance a thicker wire carries more current with less voltage drop than a thinner wire. For longer distances it may be necessary to increase wire diameter - reducing the gauge - to limit voltage drop.