The Best Fast Chargers for Every Device (2024)

Our favorite phone chargers with USB-C ports will charge an iPhone at its maximum speed.

Every iPhone released since 2017 (starting with the iPhone 8 and iPhone X) is capable of charging roughly three times faster than it does with theold 5 W charger that used to be included in the box—it just needs the right charger and cable to go that fast. That’s because modern iPhones can take advantage of a charging technology called USB Power Delivery (PD), which is enabled by the USB-C standard (though not all USB-C accessories support PD).

Fast-charging an iPhone requires a USB-C PD charger that supports at least 18 W (20 W chargers are more common, and will provide similar speeds). Whereas Apple’s old 5 W charger could power an iPhone 13 to about 17% from empty in half an hour and 34% in an hour, a good USB-C PD charger will get the same battery to 52% and 83% over the same intervals. (And even if you have an older iPhone that doesn’t benefit from such speeds, our USB-C charger picks are inexpensive enough that you should choose one of them over a USB-A charger.)

To take advantage of PD charging rates with a compatible iPhone, you also need the right cable—namely, a USB-C–to–Lightning cable. (If you have a phone in the iPhone 15 lineup, you’ll need a USB-C–to–USB-C cable—see our guidance for Android phones below.)

Apple no longer ships a charger with its iPhones, but it does include a USB-C–to–Lightning cable, which is necessary for fast charging the iPhone 14 lineup and earlier models. For a while, Apple was the only source for such cables, but the company has since allowed third-party manufacturers to make them, and they’ve come down in price.

You can double your iPad Pro’s charging speeds with a charger capable of 45 W or higher.

Even though iPad Pros can fast-charge with 45 W chargers, the USB-C charger that Apple puts in the box supports only 20 W speeds. The higher W makes a huge difference: A 45 W or faster charger will get the large iPad battery to 33% from empty in half an hour and to 65% in an hour—almost twice as quickly as the in-the-box charger.

The cable that comes with your iPad Pro will work with any fast charger, too.

Unlike with most iPhones, you don’t need to buy a special cable for the iPad Pro since it uses USB-C input instead of the Lightning connector. But if you need a replacement, our USB-C cable guide has sturdier and cheaper options than the Apple-branded cable.

Most modern Android phones will charge quickly with a good USB-C charger.

Most Android phones, especially flagship models from bigger companies like Google and Samsung, charge through USB-C ports. Even though some companies have promoted their own fast-charging standards, such as the declining Qualcomm Quick Charge standard, we’ve found that you can fast-charge today’s Android phones with any good USB-C Power Delivery charger. When we ran charging tests on the Samsung Galaxy S10+, for example, we saw the same battery increase from the bundled charger, Quick Charge 2.0 and 3.0 chargers, and an 18 W USB-C charger: All of them yielded about 41% after half an hour and 80% after an hour.

And a simple USB-C cable is all you need for rapid charging.

If you need a replacement USB-C–to–USB-C cable, our guide to cables outlines which one to get based on our research and testing. They’re all relatively inexpensive, and they’ll ensure the fastest charging speeds for your phone.

In addition to newer fast chargers, we have USB-A charger picks that will work great if your device has a Micro-USB connection.

Android phones that charge via Micro-USB are becoming less common, though plenty of other accessories—from Kindle e-readers to wireless headphones—still rely on that connection. Micro-USB charging is generally limited to 12 W, regardless of whether the other end of the cable is USB-A or USB-C.

Any USB-A charger from a reputable brand will charge your Micro-USB devices as fast as possible, and we still recommend a few in our multiport charger guide. You can pair the charger with the Micro-USB cable that came with the device, or pick up one of our recommended USB-A–to–Micro-USB cables.

If most of your chargers have USB-C ports, you can still use them to charge Micro-USB devices with the right cable—though it won’t offer faster charging. In this case, we recommend using a USB-C–to–Micro-USB cable (we like the AmazonBasics USB Type-C to Micro-B 2.0 Cable).

We’ve tested all the top USB-C laptop chargers, and our favorites are compact, safe, and fast-charging.

Almost any laptop that charges over USB-C, including most of Apple’s MacBooks and top picks from Asus, Dell, and Samsung, charge at their fastest rate with a 60 W charger. Even if a laptop doesn’t need that much power, a faster charger is still safe to use and doesn’t have any negative effects.

We also have picks for high-powered laptops, such as the MacBook Air (2022 or later), the 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021 or later), the 15-inch MacBook Pro (2019 or later), and the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019 or later). These laptops are the biggest exception to the 60 W rule, as they require between 67 W and 140 W to fast-charge at full speed. Apple provides sufficiently powerful chargers in the box with most configurations of these machines. But if you need a replacement or backup charger, we’ve found some great options that safely provide as much as 140 W of power for a fraction of the price of Apple’s chargers.

A USB-C car charger is great for keeping your phone powered while you’re driving, as well as for making sure you arrive at your destination with more charge than when you departed.

And if you have a power bank, the faster it charges your phone, the less time you have to worry about dealing with it.

Everything we said above about wall chargers holds true for car chargers and portable power banks. Paired with the right cable, a good USB-C charger offers the fastest charging speeds possible for your phone or any other handheld device equipped with a USB-C port.