Thunderbolt vs USB-C: what's the difference?

Two Thunderbolt ports.
(Image credit: Kensington)

If you've bought a computer recently—whether that's one the best laptops for graphic design or a Mac for video editing—it'll probably come with either Thunderbolt ports, USB-C ports, or a mix of both. These little slots in the side allow you to connect a range of peripherals, from printers to the best monitor for MacBook Pro.

But which is which? It's not obvious. Thunderbolt and USB-C ports look identical, and they work in pretty much the same way.

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Header Cell - Column 0 USB-CThunderbolt
ProsFlippability (no right side up or down) Can transmit data at speeds up to 20Gbps (up to 40Gbps with USB4) Can deliver up to 100 watts of power to charge devices It can transmit DisplayPort audio and video signals Much faster than standard USB-C ports Can transfer data at up to 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 supports sending video signals to two 4K displays or one 8K display Backwards-compatibility with USB-C devices
Cons• Slower for data and file transfers • USB-C can only connect one device at a time.  Not as common as USB-C ports An adapter is required to use with smaller devices
Tom May

Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects. 

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