At One Place

USB 3.x size

USB 3.x
5, 10 or 20 Gbit/s depending on generation

This is the family where the naming became genuinely misleading. USB 3.0 (5 Gbit/s) was renamed USB 3.1 Gen 1, then USB 3.2 Gen 1, without the hardware changing at all. 10 Gbit/s is Gen 2, and 20 Gbit/s is Gen 2×2. A device advertised as "USB 3.2" may be any of the three. The USB-IF now recommends marketing by speed — "USB 5Gbps", "USB 10Gbps" — precisely because the version numbers stopped carrying information.

The numbers

Specification
5, 10 or 20 Gbit/s depending on generation
Defined by
USB-IF

The same physical port and cable can be any of these speeds. Version numbers alone do not tell you which.

USB

Size Millimetres Inches
USB-C connector 8.34 × 2.56 mm 0.33 × 0.10
USB 3.x ← 5, 10 or 20 Gbit/s depending on generation
USB 2.0 480 Mbit/s, 2.5 W (500 mA at 5 V)
USB4 20, 40 or 80 Gbit/s; USB-C connector only

Common questions

What size is USB 3.x?
5 Gbit/s originally, renamed repeatedly — check the speed, not the name.
Which standard defines USB 3.x?
USB-IF

Related pages

Sources

  1. Official vendor product documentation — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked