USB naming is genuinely confusing, and it is not your fault. The standards body responsible has renamed the same speeds twice, which means a 5Gbps port has been called USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 at different points — while the hardware never changed at all.
Here is what the names mean, what you actually get, and how much of it matters when you are buying a cable or a hub.
The short version
There are really only a handful of speeds. Everything else is renaming.
| Speed | Original name | Renamed (2013) | Renamed again (2017) | Plain-English marketing name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 480Mbps | USB 2.0 | USB 2.0 | USB 2.0 | Hi-Speed USB |
| 5Gbps | USB 3.0 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.2 Gen 1 | USB 5Gbps |
| 10Gbps | — | USB 3.1 Gen 2 | USB 3.2 Gen 2 | USB 10Gbps |
| 20Gbps | — | — | USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 | USB 20Gbps |
| 20 or 40Gbps | — | — | USB4 | USB 40Gbps |
Read that table once and most product listings stop being mysterious. “USB 3.1 Gen 1” is not faster than “USB 3.0”. They are the same 5Gbps. A seller writing “USB 3.1” without saying Gen 1 or Gen 2 is telling you almost nothing.
Why the renaming happened
The USB Implementers Forum publishes the specification, and when a new version arrives it folds the older speeds into the new document rather than leaving them behind. So when USB 3.1 was published, the existing 5Gbps mode was absorbed and relabelled “Gen 1”. When USB 3.2 arrived, everything was relabelled again under the 3.2 umbrella.
The intention was tidy specification writing. The effect on shoppers was the opposite. The USB-IF has since asked manufacturers to drop version numbers in marketing entirely and use the speed instead — “USB 5Gbps”, “USB 10Gbps”, “USB 40Gbps”. That is a real improvement, and you will see those logos on newer packaging. Older stock and a lot of marketplace listings still use the version numbers, so both systems are in circulation.
Four separate things people confuse
Most USB confusion is not really about version numbers. It is about four independent things that all happen to travel down the same cable.
1. The connector shape
USB-A is the flat rectangle. USB-C is the small oval that goes in either way up. USB-B and micro-USB turn up on printers, drives and older phones. The shape tells you nothing about speed. There are USB-C ports running at 480Mbps and USB-A ports running at 10Gbps.
2. The data speed
This is the 5 / 10 / 20 / 40Gbps question in the table above. It is set by the slowest link in the chain: the host port, the cable and the device all have to support the speed for you to get it.
3. The power delivery
Charging is a separate specification. USB Power Delivery (USB PD) negotiates voltage and current between charger and device, and PPS adds fine-grained voltage adjustment that some phones use for faster, cooler charging. A cable can be excellent at power and unremarkable at data, or the reverse.
4. The alternate modes
DisplayPort Alt Mode lets a USB-C port carry a video signal. It is a property of the port on your laptop, not of the cable and not of the USB version. Plenty of USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports have no video capability at all.
What speed do you actually need?
| What you are doing | Speed that is genuinely enough | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Keyboard, mouse, webcam, printer | USB 2.0 (480Mbps) | Even a 4K webcam is well under this ceiling |
| Charging a phone or laptop | Any — data speed is irrelevant | Look at wattage and PD support instead |
| External hard drive (spinning disk) | 5Gbps | The drive itself is the bottleneck, not USB |
| Portable SSD, photo and video offload | 10Gbps | Where the jump from 5 to 10Gbps is actually visible |
| External GPU, multiple 4K displays, high-end NVMe | USB4 or Thunderbolt | Specialist territory; costs considerably more |
Real-world throughput always lands below the headline number, because the figure is the raw signalling rate before protocol overhead. A 5Gbps link realistically moves somewhere in the region of 400MB/s at best, and usually less depending on the drive.
How this maps to what you buy
Our 4-port USB-C hub is a good example of the naming problem in practice. It is described as USB 3.1 Gen 1, up to 5Gbps, with four USB 3.0 ports. Under the current naming that is the same thing said three ways — 5Gbps. It is the right speed for keyboards, mice, card readers, printers and ordinary external drives, which is what most people plug into a hub.
For data transfer where speed genuinely matters, our USB-C to USB-C cable handles data up to 10Gbps and charging up to 100W / 5A over 2 metres. That combination — high data speed and high power in one cable — is what you want if you are moving files off an SSD and charging a laptop from the same cable at different times.
If you need ports plus video and ethernet rather than raw speed, the 7-in-1 USB-C hub adds HDMI at 4K 60Hz, two USB-A ports, a USB-C port, SD and microSD slots and gigabit ethernet, with no drivers to install.
When you should not spend more
A few situations where paying for a higher number is wasted money:
- You only ever charge with the cable. Data speed is irrelevant. Buy for wattage and build quality.
- Your laptop port is 5Gbps. A 20Gbps cable will run at 5Gbps. The chain moves at the slowest link.
- Your external drive is a spinning hard disk. It cannot saturate 5Gbps, let alone 10.
- You are plugging in a keyboard. A keyboard sends a few bytes when you press a key.
- The listing just says “USB 3.1”. If the seller will not specify Gen 1 or Gen 2, assume Gen 1 (5Gbps) and pay Gen 1 money.
How to check what you have
Windows: Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Entries mentioning “USB 3.x eXtensible Host Controller” indicate USB 3 capability. For per-device speed, Settings > Bluetooth & devices > USB gives a connection notification if a device could run faster in another port.
macOS: hold Option, click the Apple menu, choose System Information, then USB. Each device lists its negotiated speed.
Physically: USB-A ports with a blue plastic tongue are usually 5Gbps. Teal is often 10Gbps. An “SS” or “SS 10” logo beside the port means SuperSpeed. These are conventions rather than rules, so treat them as a hint.
Frequently asked questions
Is USB 3.1 faster than USB 3.0?
Not necessarily. USB 3.1 Gen 1 is identical to USB 3.0 at 5Gbps. Only USB 3.1 Gen 2 is faster, at 10Gbps. If a listing says “USB 3.1” without specifying the generation, assume 5Gbps.
Does a USB-C cable automatically mean fast?
No. USB-C is a connector shape. USB-C cables exist at 480Mbps, 5Gbps, 10Gbps, 20Gbps and 40Gbps, and the charging capability is separate again. Always check the stated data speed and wattage.
What is USB 3.2 Gen 2×2?
It is 20Gbps, achieved by running two 10Gbps lanes at once. It requires USB-C at both ends and support from the host, the cable and the device. Adoption has been limited, and most laptops skipped straight from 10Gbps to USB4.
Will a 10Gbps cable make my old drive faster?
No. The connection runs at the speed of the slowest component. If your drive or your laptop’s port is 5Gbps, that is what you get, and a mechanical hard drive will not reach even that.
Do I need USB4 or Thunderbolt?
Only for demanding work such as external GPUs, multiple high-resolution displays from one port, or fast external NVMe storage. For a hub, a card reader and a monitor, 5Gbps or 10Gbps is plenty and costs far less.
If you want a hand choosing
The honest summary: buy for what you plug in, not for the biggest number on the box. If you are unsure which speed your setup actually needs, tell us what you are connecting and we will point you at the cheapest thing that does the job.
Everything is held in stock in Australia and dispatched from here, so orders arrive in business days rather than weeks.
