Travel Adapter & Plug Finder

Quick answer: most of the world runs on 220–240 V: 178 of the 221 countries and territories in the table. 34 run on 100–127 V like the United States, and 9 list both. An American plug (type A or B) is used in 55 of them, and only 32 of those are also on 100–127 V. Italy uses type C, F and L sockets, the UK type G, Japan and Mexico the same A and B as the US.

How to use it

Pick where you live and up to three places you are going, and tick what you are bringing. The answer says whether your plugs fit each place, draws the socket types used there, gives the voltage and frequency, and names the one adapter that covers the whole trip, or says that no single one does. Each device gets a line on what its label has to say before you plug it in. The answer is also in the page’s address, so Copy link shares exactly what you see.

Where the answers come from

The plug types and the voltage of every country are Wikidata’s (public domain, CC0): each country’s “electrical plug type” and “mains voltage”, read on September 25, 2026, with the standard names turned into the letters travellers use (Europlug is C, Schuko F, BS 1363 G, and so on). Where Wikidata gives a three-phase figure next to the household one, only the household one is kept. The frequency, 50 or 60 Hz, is the US International Trade Administration’s table Electric Current Worldwide, read through the Internet Archive. That table dates from 2002, so it is used for the one thing that has not moved since; its plug letters follow an older scheme and are not used.

A plug “fits” here when the same plug type is used there. The tool makes no claim that one type fits another type’s socket: the standards body’s own pages on which plugs mate could not be read, and a guess about a plug in a wall is not one to make. Hotels, old buildings and some regions differ from a country’s standard, so look at the socket too.

An adapter or a converter?

An adapter changes the shape of the plug and nothing else. A converter (or transformer) changes the voltage. Which one a device needs is written on its label or its charger: look for the line that starts INPUT. “100–240V ~ 50/60Hz” means the device takes any mains in the world and needs only an adapter where the plug does not fit. A single voltage, like “120V ~ 60Hz”, means it needs a converter wherever the voltage is in the other range, and must never be plugged straight into it. Heaters (hair dryers, straighteners, curling irons) draw a lot of power: a converter for one has to be rated above the watts on its label, and a dual-voltage travel model is often the simpler answer.

What an American traveller needs, country by country

“With US plugs” is the answer for type A and B plugs on 120 V. Where a country uses type A but not B, a two-pin plug fits and a three-pin one does not. Pick your own country above for the answer from anywhere else.

Worked examples

• Two weeks in Italy from the US: Italy uses type C, F and L sockets at 230 V, so American plugs need an adapter. A phone or laptop charger labelled 100–240V needs nothing more; a 120 V hair dryer needs a converter rated above its watts, or stays home.
• London, then Paris: the UK uses type G, France types C and E, and no socket type is used in both. Bring one adapter for each, or one universal adapter that lists G and one of C or E.
• Tokyo from the US: Japan uses the same A and B sockets, so American plugs fit. The voltage is 100 V, in the same range as 120 V: chargers work, and a hair dryer runs with a little less heat.
• Bangkok from the US: Thailand’s sockets take American plugs, but at 220 V. The plug fits and the voltage does not: check every label, and never plug a 120 V-only device straight in.
• From the UK to the US: a UK type G plug needs a type A or B adapter, and 230 V-only devices need a converter to run on 120 V.

Common mistakes

• Taking an adapter for a converter. It changes the plug’s shape; the voltage coming out is the country’s.
• Plugging a 120 V-only hair dryer into a 230 V socket through an adapter. It fits, and nearly double the voltage it was built for can burn it out.
• Assuming “the plug fits” means “the voltage is fine”. American plugs fit in Thailand, Peru and the Philippines, and two-pin ones in China and Vietnam; the voltage in all five is 220 V.
• Forgetting the third pin. Where sockets are type A only, a grounded type B plug does not go in.

Before you pack

Add the adapter to your packing list, and read the international travel tips for first-timers. Going to Italy or Japan? The Italy packing list and the Japan packing list cover the rest of the bag.