Wire For 220 Volt Circuits: AWG Gauge Chart For 10-200 Amps

What gauge wire for 220V? Exactly the right wire gauge for 220 volts can be a bit confusing for many homeowners. That’s why we will explain how to size a wire for any 220V circuit. On top of that, we have also created a 220V Wire Size Chart below (it tells you want AWG wire to use for 10 amp, 20 amp, 30 amp, 40 amp, 50 amp 220V circuits, and so on).

Now, the key to understanding every 220V wire size is this:

Wires don’t care about voltage. Wires care only about amps.

You can use 20 AWG wire for 220V. You can also use a 4/0 AWG wire for 220V. It all comes down to amps.

Quick Example: For a 10 amp 220V circuit, you can use a 20 AWG copper wire (because it has 11A ampacity). For a 200 amp 220V circuit, you should use 3/0 AWG copper wire (because it has 200A ampacity).

That characteristic – ampacity – is the key to figuring out any wire size, including 220V voltage. Namely, ampacity is the ability of a wire to carry electric current (measured in amps). The voltage, on the other hand, is just the electric potential (8 AWG wire, for example, can easily handle 10,000V voltage, but it will go up in flames if you put 100 amps on it because it has only 50A ampacity).

Here are a few things that will come useful when figuring out what gauge wire you need for 220V applications:

• Thicker wires (lower AWG number, or even kcmil/MCM wires) can carry more amps.
• Same-thickness copper wires can handle more amps than aluminum wires.
• Helpful for copper wires: You can check the AWG copper wire ampacity chart here.
• Helpful for aluminum wires: You can check the AWG aluminum wire ampacity chart here.

Alright, let go step-by-step of how to determine the right 220V wire gauge:

How To Determine 220V Wire Size? (Step-By-Step)

1. Determine how many amps should your 220V circuit handle. Example: If you need a 50 amp 220V circuit, you need a wire that can handle 50 amps (50A ampacity or higher).
2. Choose the wire material you want to use: copper or aluminum wires.
3. For copper wires, check the copper wire ampacity chart here. You will see that a 12 AWG copper wire can handle 25 amps, a 10 AWG copper wire can handle 35 amps, an 8 AWG wire can handle 50 amps, and so on.
4. For aluminum wires, check the aluminum wire ampacity chart here (check the median ampacity at 75°C (167°F)). You can see an 8 AWG aluminum wire can handle 40 amps, a 6 AWG wire can handle 50 amps, a 4 AWG aluminum wire can handle 65 amps, and so on.

This is quite simple in practice. Before we check the all-encompassing 220V wire sizes (both copper and aluminum), let’s look at these 2 examples:

1st Example: “I need a 100 amp wire for 220V circuit. I’m using copper wires, what gauge should I choose?”

Alright, to answer this, we have to check the copper wire ampacity chart. We are looking for a wire that has at least 100A ampacity. Here is the screenshot from that chart:

Note: If you need to deliver 100 amp 220V electricity over longer distances (25 ft, 50 ft, 100 ft, and so on), it is safer to opt for bigger 2 AWG copper wire (115A ampacity) or 1 AWG copper wire (130A ampacity).

2nd Example: “I need a 50 amp wire for 220V circuit. I’m using aluminum wires, what gauge should I choose?”

If we are using aluminum wires, we have to check the aluminum wire ampacity chart. We need to figure out which aluminum wire can handle 50 amps or more. Here is again a screenshot from the aluminum ampacity chart:

Note (again): If you need to deliver 50 amp 220V electricity over longer distances (25 ft, 50 ft, 100 ft, and so on), it is safer to opt for bigger 4 AWG aluminum wire (65A ampacity).

This is how you can size any 220V wire manually.

To help you out (without cross-referencing these ampacity charts), we have prepared the following 220V wire size chart for both copper and aluminum wires. You can just check this and use the data for simple circuits (short-distance wires):

220V Wire Size Chart

Using this chart, you can easily see what gauge wires you need for 220V circuits. Here are some examples:

• For a 40 amp 220V circuit, you can use 8 AWG copper wire or 8 AWG aluminum wire.
• For a 90 amp 220V circuit, you can use 3 AWG copper wire or 2 AWG aluminum wire.
• For a 150 amp 220V circuit, you can use 0 AWG copper wire or 000 AWG aluminum wire.

We hope that this makes sizing 220V wires a bit easier. If you need any help, you can give us a few details in the comment section below, and we will try to solve it together.