Charging setups
Charging Kit Planner
Describe the devices you are taking, the charger and cable you already own, and where you are going. The planner answers with one of three sentences: your current kit is sufficient, you are missing a specific part, or the figures needed are not on the label yet. It never fills a gap with a guess, and it never points at a product.
What the three answers mean
A packing answer is only useful if it can be wrong out loud. This page therefore has exactly three outcomes, and two of them are not "yes":
| Answer | When it is given | What it tells you to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your current kit is sufficient | Every check that can be decided from what you entered passes, and nothing that matters is left unread. | Pack what you listed. Charge one device at a time unless your charger documents a per-port table. |
| You are missing X | At least one part is provably short: a port, a cable class, a cable count, a plug shape or the single-port output itself. | Get the smallest part that meets the specification. Nothing above it is required by these figures. |
| Needs verification | A figure that decides the answer is not established — a marking you have not read, or a country whose record is not verified. | Read the named field on the hardware and submit again. The rest of your entries are kept. |
Order matters. A proven shortage outranks an open question, because a missing part is actionable whether or not the other markings are read. An open question outranks a pass, because passing on unread evidence would be a guess wearing a tick.
What the planner checks, and in which order
- The destination record. Only countries researched against primary sources can support a conclusion. Where the record is unverified, the answer is Needs verification and no packing list is produced, because a socket shape invented for you is worse than an empty list.
- One charger profile against your largest device. The charger figure is one row of the output label read as volts × amps. A device that asks for more than that row is short, whatever the headline on the box says.
- Ports, if the devices charge at the same time. Two wired devices need two ports. A total rating above their combined demand does not create a port, so this is a count problem and is reported as one.
- The documented split between ports. With several ports in use, what each port delivers is only known from the maker's allocation table. This site publishes no such table, so that row stays open instead of being assumed.
- Port types. A charger with USB-A sockets only cannot carry the USB-C negotiation a laptop asks for, whatever the wattage printed beside the socket.
- The cable, device by device. The smallest class that covers the device's figure is compared with the class you own, and above 3 A the marking on the cable is part of the answer.
- How many cables you have. Cables can only be counted, not shared: one device per cable while several charge at once.
- Plug shape for the destination. A shape mismatch is one adapter away. It is never a voltage problem, and never a reason to buy a converter for a USB charger.
- Wireless devices, kept apart. A device on a pad takes no USB-C port and no cable. Its speed and efficiency are outside what these figures describe, so it adds nothing and subtracts nothing.
What this page refuses to do
- No product, model, price or rating appears anywhere. The product data file behind this site is empty, so the planner cannot suggest a part even if a suggestion would be convenient.
- No "incompatible" verdict. Short of a figure is a shortage; a figure you have not read is an open question. Neither is a compatibility failure.
- No bigger-is-better default. A larger rating buys headroom for extra devices, never compatibility for the one you have, so the planner does not tell you to buy the next size up.
- No total-as-per-port arithmetic. The charger total stays context: it never proves what one port delivers while others are in use.
- No measured claims. Every watt figure here is a label figure, not a measurement on a test bench.
- No new pages from your input. Trip length changes only how often you recharge. Your entries are not written into a URL, a sitemap entry or any indexable state — the answer exists in your browser for as long as the tab is open.
Plan your kit
Five short groups. Every figure comes from your own hardware: the charger label, the cable marking and the device's own supply. Nothing is calculated until the required fields are valid, and nothing you type leaves this page.
RequiredDestination, one charger output row, cable class and plug typeOptionalTrip length, device batteries and extra cables, folded into “More options”
Start with your power bank
OptionalPicking a model fills device 1 as a power bank (category and battery energy). You still enter the watts it draws from your charger, because a pack’s maximum output is not its input.
Conclusion
Basis for this answer
Packing list
Required specifications — smallest parts that meet your figures
Optional — comfort only, never counted in a figure
Candidates — no links, prices or ratings exist here
Assumptions and limits
Next steps
Nothing is preset on this page. There are no charger or device models to pick from, because a preset that goes stale is worse than an empty field. Every figure is either printed on your own hardware or it is absent, and an absent figure produces Needs verification rather than a friendly guess.
A worked kit
A phone that asks for 20 W, a charger labelled 20 V at 3.25 A on its strongest row, one USB-C port, a 5 A cable marked with an E-Marker, a Type C plug, and Italy as the destination. The strongest row comes to 65 W, which covers the 20 W device with room to spare. One port covers one device at a time. The cable's class exceeds what 20 W needs. Italy's sockets accept a Type C plug, so no adapter is needed for shape. Every check that can be decided passes, and none is left unread: the answer is your current kit is sufficient.
Change one field and the answer changes with it. Replace the phone with a 65 W laptop and a 3 A cable, and the same charger still covers the device while the cable no longer carries the figure: you are missing a 5 A cable marked for that power. Add a second device that must charge at the same time on a single-port charger, and the shortage is a port, not a wattage: you are missing a port. Swap the 5 A cable for one whose rating you cannot read, and the answer becomes Needs verification — with the marking named, and every other entry kept.
The three answers are the whole point. A planner that can only say "yes" is a shopping list in disguise.
Where these rules come from
No formula is written on this page. Each check delegates to the module that already publishes it: the charger row to charger.js (volts × amps for one profile, alternate profiles mutually exclusive), the port split to scene.js (total is context, never a per-port figure), the cable classes to cable.js (60 W / 100 W / 240 W, above 3 A requires an E-Marker), the destination and plug rules to travel.js (an unverified country returns no compatibility conclusion), the recharge note to powerbank.js and units.js, and the field parsing to validate.js. planner.js only decides the order and the wording of the three states.
Limits you should read before trusting the answer
- Labels, not measurements. A 65 W row is a documented ceiling. Sustained output in a warm room can be lower.
- No per-port allocation data. When several ports are in use, what each port delivers is unverified here, so a simultaneous kit is never called sufficient on these figures alone.
- Four verified countries. Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Tanzania have researched records, each with its sources and a review date. Japan is listed as not yet verified — it runs at 50 Hz and 60 Hz while the record holds a single frequency value — and the planner refuses a conclusion for it rather than guessing.
- No cable database. Cable capability is judged from the class you select. A cable that is marked but worn, damaged or counterfeit is outside what any label can tell you.
Related
- Charging a laptop and phone on one charger — the port-split question in full.
- Charger wattage calculator — reading one output row as watts.
- USB-C charging cable guide — power classes and E-Marker requirements.
- Travel adapter finder — the mains question on its own.
- Italy travel adapters and South Korea travel adapters — the two verified country guides.
- Power bank calculator — full charges from a battery figure.
Sources
- USB Power Delivery specification — one negotiated profile per port, and power above 3 A requiring an electronically marked cable. Recorded in
docs/calculation-methods.mdanddocs/sources-log.md. - IEC World Plugs and the country records behind
data/countries.json— socket types, nominal voltage and frequency, with a verification date per country. - Manufacturer per-port allocation tables, as published by each charger maker. Not republished here, because they are model- and revision-specific, which is why this planner leaves that row open.
- Cable power classes as stated by the USB-IF cable and connector pages. Note that these are paper classes, not measurements of your specific cable.
Method reviewed 9 November 2026. Every figure in an answer is either your own input or a verified record; the planner adds no product data of any kind.