Table A.1: American Wire Gauge (AWG) Specifications

This table is a first-pass copper chassis-wiring reference for car audio planning, not a blanket guarantee of safe amplifier power. Real current capacity changes with run length, bundling, ambient temperature, routing, and whether the cable is OFC copper or higher-resistance CCA.

Use the fuse column to protect the wire, not to guess amplifier size by itself. If the run is long, the wire is bundled in hot spaces, or the cable is CCA, step up a gauge and confirm voltage drop before treating the table as final.

AWG	Diameter	Cross-Section	Resistance	Current Capacity	Maximum Fuse	Typical Use
	(mm / in)	(mm^2 / kcmil)	(ohms per 100 ft)	(Chassis Wiring)	Rating
18	1.02 / 0.040	0.82 / 1.6	0.639	16A	20A	Remote, signal
16	1.29 / 0.051	1.31 / 2.6	0.403	22A	25A	Speaker wire
14	1.63 / 0.064	2.08 / 4.1	0.253	32A	40A	Speaker wire, small amps
12	2.05 / 0.081	3.31 / 6.5	0.159	41A	50A	300-500W systems
10	2.59 / 0.102	5.26 / 10.4	0.100	55A	60A	500-750W systems
8	3.26 / 0.128	8.37 / 16.5	0.063	73A	80A	750-1000W systems
6	4.11 / 0.162	13.3 / 26.3	0.040	101A	125A	1000-1500W systems
4	5.19 / 0.204	21.2 / 41.7	0.025	135A	150A	1500-2000W systems
2	6.54 / 0.258	33.6 / 66.4	0.016	181A	200A	2000-3000W systems
1	7.35 / 0.289	42.4 / 83.7	0.013	211A	225A	2500-3500W systems
0 (1/0)	8.25 / 0.325	53.5 / 105.6	0.010	245A	250A	3000-4000W systems
00 (2/0)	9.27 / 0.365	67.4 / 133.1	0.008	283A	300A	4000-5000W systems
000 (3/0)	10.40 / 0.410	85.0 / 167.8	0.006	328A	350A	5000-6000W+
0000 (4/0)	11.68 / 0.460	107.2 / 211.6	0.005	380A	400A	6000W+ systems

Notes:

Current capacity is a chassis-wiring reference for free-air conditions, not a universal amplifier-power rule.
For amplifier wiring in enclosed or hot spaces, derate the current estimate by roughly 20-30%.
For runs longer than 20 feet, or for meaningful voltage-drop sensitivity, move to the next larger gauge.
Resistance values assume copper wire; CCA cable usually has noticeably higher resistance and needs more caution.