ESP32/Which chip

Five chips, one name. Which do you need?

Tick what your project has to do. Whatever is left standing is your answer, and each card says what that chip gives up.

Already own a board? Skip to the guides →

My project needs

Nothing required yet
All five are still in play
Tick a requirement above, or tap a row in the table below. Chips that cannot do it fade out.
ESP32Xtensa LX6

The original, and still the only one that speaks classic Bluetooth serial.

No native USB.The ESP32 page →
ESP32-S3Xtensa LX7

The workhorse. Two cores, native USB, room for PSRAM, and vector instructions that make camera work practical.

No classic Bluetooth and no DAC.The S3 page →
ESP32-C3RISC-V

Small, cheap, RISC-V. One core that does one thing at a time, and does it well.

Single core, no touch pins, no DAC.The C3 page →
ESP32-C6RISC-V + LP core

Wi-Fi 6, and the only chip here that also speaks Zigbee, Thread and Matter.

No classic Bluetooth, no DAC, one main core.The C6 page →
ESP32-P4Dual RISC-V

The big one. 400 MHz across two cores, MIPI displays and cameras, and real headroom for interfaces that used to need a Pi.

No radio at all. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, nothing.The P4 page →

Side by side

Tap a row to require it
FeatureESP32S3C3C6P4
Xtensa LX6Xtensa LX7RISC-VRISC-V + LP coreDual RISC-V
2×240 MHz2×240 MHz1×160 MHz1×160 MHz2×400 MHz
Wi-Fi 4Wi-Fi 4Wi-Fi 4Wi-Fi 6
yes
BLE 4.2BLE 5BLE 5BLE 5
yes
802.15.4
USB OTGUSB serial/JTAGUSB serial/JTAGUSB 2.0 HS
yes
10 pins14 pins
optionalup to 8 MBup to 32 MB
yesyesyes
LAN8720built-in
ULP-FSMULP-RISC-VLP coreLP core
DVP (OV2640)DVP (OV2640)MIPI CSI
DSI + CSI

One table, and every “does my chip support this” banner on the site reads from it. Change a field once and the whole library follows.

The three answers that catch people out
P4 has no radio. Not a weaker one — none. It needs a companion chip to reach a network.
Only the original does classic Bluetooth. If you need Bluetooth serial to a phone, the newer chips cannot help.
Wi-Fi 6 needs a Wi-Fi 6 router. Against an older access point the C6 behaves like every other ESP32.
Still not sure?

For a first board, buy the S3. It has no missing feature you are likely to trip over, native USB means no driver hunt, and it is the chip our starter kits are written against.

See the starter kits →