How does a USB C port provide the power to charge laptops?

Question

I've heard about laptops such as the new Chromebooks that are charged via a wall charger that connects to a USB-C port. I'm quite happy that this will supposedly standardize laptop chargers but I'm a little unclear about how this works.

Existing USB ports provide a 5 volt source, but the laptop chargers provide up to 20 volts. is there some kind of higher voltage line or are the USB-C powered laptops running on a lower voltage?

All this information I've seen gives a fairly vague idea of providing more power, providing up to 100 watts rather than 10 watts. Even so, my laptop is not the most powerful machine and the charger still outputs fairly near 100 watts, I can imagine more chargers for power laptops providing much more than 100 watts. Could a general purpose USB-C charger really power all these machines?

@ignacio by the way, Dell make a [210 W power supply](http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19335884)! — tomnexus, Mar 12 '15 at 23:22
@tomnexus. WHAT. THE. ****. "... nearly the size of a cereal box." — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Mar 12 '15 at 23:26
@markt The other way around: buttocks double as a heat sink. — Nick Alexeev, Mar 13 '15 at 00:35
The [power supply](http://us.estore.asus.com/products/230-watt-ac-adapter-0a001-00390000) for my ASUS G750JZ gaming laptop is 230W. — Jeanne Pindar, Mar 13 '15 at 14:49
@ZeroKelvinKeyboard - how do you know your 'charger still outputs fairly near 100 watts'? I've used a 'Kill-A-Watt' meter on my laptop charger and it's typically drawing 5-20 Amps, except when the battery is being charged. But I wouldn't be able to determine this without the Kill-a-watt meter. — Steerpike, Jul 03 '22 at 01:01

score 48 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 22 '17 at 02:33

48

USB-C will use the Power Delivery specification, a first connexion is done at 5V, then "negotiate" whether it can use a higher profile to charge. There are 5 profiles available :

Profile 1 : 5V@2A
Profile 2 : 5V@2A or 12V@1.5A
Profile 3 : 5V@2A or 12V@3A
Profile 4 : 5V@2A or 12V@3A or 20V@3A
Profile 5 : 5V@2A or 12V@5A or 20V@5A

There are 4 connection point for the power (2 on each side - see pinout below), as far I know, they are all equal and may be connected by a single cable (I think it will be at the cable manufacturer discretion). These additional connection allow to go for higher current without having massive voltage drop at the connection. Coupled with higher voltage, that gives a lot higher charging power.

All in all, I guess that the laptops will as well charge with 5V (on USB A charger), just far slower. And based on what I saw from Apple for their new Macbook, the charger is 29W, so most likely a Profile 3 (a bit under spec), it seems then to be only 12V.

It seems that additional profiles have been added by some manufacturers, for instance, Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 seems to be an implementation of the Power Delivery but using 9V too. This technology though does not use the Power Delivery specification as it uses the D+/D- lines of the USB 2.0 port to negotiate the voltage.

Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 brings it one step further and now allow to "negotiate" any voltage from 3.7V to 20V by increment of 200mV. No data found so far about the current at each voltage.

edited Aug 22 '17 at 02:33

Deduplicator

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answered Mar 13 '15 at 07:06

Memes

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edited to add some more info – Memes Nov 03 '15 at 10:06
some more edits – Memes Jan 19 '16 at 07:07
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This was quite correct at the time that it was written (USB PD v1.x), however in USB-PD v2.0 & v3.0 'Power Profiles' have been deprecated and replaced with 'Power Rules'. – Techydude Apr 25 '17 at 07:26
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I doubt most laptops will charge off a 5V charger. To do that would add significant complexity to the power management circuit for little gain. – Peter Green Jun 09 '17 at 13:17
Anyone care to provide a more up-to-date answer? Or link to a question that does? For example, the Nintendo Switch power supply provides 2.6A at 15V, which isn't one of the profiles in this answer. – M_M Feb 10 '21 at 17:04
This was a great answer to the question. Good and concise information with a nice graphic to drive it home. – Michael Sims Jul 29 '21 at 09:59
from what I saw, the latest spec is quite close to the Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. I would need to find more data to update the answer properly. – Memes Jul 30 '21 at 10:40
@Memes - you speculate that the four VBUS pins could all be connected to one conductor in the cable, but I believe the design intent is to spread the load across all four conductors, since the conductors themselves are very small. With a max of 5A being supported, spreading that 5A across 4 conductors is safter than running it all on 1 conductor. – Steerpike Jul 03 '22 at 01:07
@Steerpike I actually do not speculate and clearly say they "could" be connected to a single cable, though that would need to be confirmed. Of course, I expect it to be 4 separate conductors as it is easier to manufacture that way. – Memes Jul 14 '22 at 10:18

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '15 at 23:18

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USB Type C allows for power negotiation, up to 5A at 20V, giving you your 100 watts.

answered Mar 12 '15 at 23:18

pjc50

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So you can set the voltages as well as the current? Is this is specific intervals or is there a just a couple of modes? – ZeroKelvinKeyboard Mar 13 '15 at 00:32
The spec is public if you want to check, but the wikipedia page implies a fixed set of modes. – pjc50 Mar 13 '15 at 00:33

How does a USB C port provide the power to charge laptops?

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