Conductor size

A comparison of standard mm² wire sizes and standard AWG wire sizes. AWG decreases as wire size increases, mm² increases as wire size increases.

Wires come in standard sizes depending upon the location. The proper wire size for a particular circuit depends on two important considerations:

1. The amount of current that they can safely carry given the conditions in which they will be used, which is called wire ampacity.
2. The amount of voltage that will be lost under operation, which is called voltage drop

The two most common standards for wire size are American Wire Gauge (AWG) and mm². These two systems are not directly equivalent.

Standard AWG	Metric equivalent	Standard metric equivalent (mm²)
18AWG	.82mm²	1mm²
16 AWG	1.31mm²	1.5mm²
14 AWG	2.08mm²	2.5mm²
12AWG	3.31mm²	4mm²
10 AWG	5.26mm²	6mm²
8 AWG	8.37mm²	10mm²
6 AWG	13.3mm²	16mm²
4 AWG	21.2mm²	25mm²
3 AWG	26.7mm²
2 AWG	33.6mm²	35mm²
1 AWG	42.4mm²	50mm²
1/0 AWG	53.5mm²
2/0 AWG	67.4mm²	70mm²
3/0 AWG	85mm²	95mm²
4/0 AWG	107mm²	120mm²