USB-C symbols and logos

How to read it

The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which licenses the USB logos, treats a product’s connector and its performance as separate things: its January 2024 guidelines say makers must state a product’s data performance separately from its physical characteristics. USB-IF gives five consumer names for the speeds, USB 80Gbps, 40Gbps, 20Gbps, 10Gbps and 5Gbps, and its certified logos carry those numbers. A certified logo may be used only on a product that has passed USB-IF’s compliance testing and is on its Integrators List. The plain USB trident is a different mark and says nothing about speed or power.

Also searched as: USB4 logo, USB-C logo, USB speed logos.

What each logo says

USB-IF’s cable guidelines of September 2024 require every certified USB-C to USB-C cable to carry a logo on the moulding around the plug, embossed or printed, giving its data rate and wattage. Their own example is a USB 20Gbps cable that supports 20 V at 3 A, which is marked 20Gbps/60W. USB 2.0 USB-C cables, which carry data at up to 480 Mbps, show only the wattage.

SuperSpeed and USB4, the older names

USB-IF announced the 60W and 240W cable logos on 30 September 2021, for the higher power that USB Power Delivery 3.1 allows, and updated its USB4 logos at the same time. Its USB4 logo guidelines of January 2022 covered USB4 20Gbps and 40Gbps logos and pointed elsewhere for SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps, 10Gbps and 20Gbps logos. By January 2024 USB-IF’s wording guidance said that USB4 Version 1.0 and 2.0, USB 3.2, SuperSpeed Plus and Enhanced SuperSpeed are names in the specifications, not for product names, packaging or anything else consumers see.

Look-alikes

A lightning bolt with an arrowhead beside a USB-C port is the Thunderbolt symbol, Intel’s mark for a Thunderbolt port, which uses the same connector. BGR notes that a bolt with no arrowhead, printed by a USB-A port, marks a port that can fast-charge devices; that is not the charging bolt a phone shows on its battery icon. A DisplayPort logo by a USB-C port shows, in VESA’s words, VESA certified DisplayPort Alt Mode support: the port can send a DisplayPort video signal. Ports of the same shape on one computer can differ. On a Mac mini from 2024, as Apple’s support guide to Mac ports describes it (September 2026), the front USB-C ports are for devices and displays go on the back ports marked with the Thunderbolt symbol.

The EU charger pictogram and label

In the European Union, Directive (EU) 2022/2380 made USB-C the common charging port. The European Commission says the rules have applied since 28 December 2024 to phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, portable speakers, handheld game consoles, e-readers, earbuds, keyboards, mice and portable navigation systems, and since 28 April 2026 to laptops. The directive adds two marks on the packaging. A pictogram, printed on the box or stuck on it, shows whether a charger is included. A label gives two figures in watts, the minimum power the device needs to charge and the power it needs to charge at full speed, and shows “USB PD” if it supports USB Power Delivery.