Cable Wire Size and Current Capacity Rating Guide

This is a general cable wire size guide to help you choose the correct wire size for your electrical project.

Choosing a thicker wire provides higher current carrying capacity. It is safer to use thicker wire to conduct the current, but thicker wire is going to cost more. This guides provides you a gauge to select the most appropriate cable size.

*** Important Notes: The variety of cable brands varies in quality. The cable conducting and insulation jacket material do have an impact of the amount of ampere current that a wire can conduct. The cable length and temperature of the conducting environment also plays a part. The following wire size and current is only an estimate for a quick reference guide when selecting your cable size. It is important to check on the datasheet of the cable directly from the manufacturer.

Wire Size and Current Rating Table Guide

Projected Maximum Operating Current	Wire Size (AWG)	Copper Wire Diameter Ø	Cross-sectional Area	Current Capacity
0.1A
0.3A
0.5A	30AWG Wire Wrapping wire	0.3mm	0.05mm2	0.8A
1A	28AWG	0.36mm	0.08mm2	1.25A
2A	27AWG
3A	26AWG	0.46mm	0.14mm2	3.5A
5A	24AWG CAT5e Network Cable	0.61mm	0.2mm2	5A
	22AWG	0.78mm	0.33mm2	8.73A
10A	21AWG
	20AWG	0.92mm	0.5mm2	13.87A
25A	17AWG	1.34mm	1.06mm2	29.2A
	16AWG		1.31mm2 (closest 1.5mm2)
50A	14AWG Electrical Wire	1.78mm	2.07mm2 (closest 2.5mm2)	55.6A
	12AWG Electrical Wire		about 4mm2
	10AWG Electrical Wire		about 6mm2