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Electronics Components: How to

Read Capacitance Values on a
Capacitor
By: Doug Lowe Updated: 03-27-2016

If there's enough room on the capacitor, most manufacturers of electronics components print the
capacitance directly on the capacitor along with other information such as the working voltage and
perhaps the tolerance. However, small capacitors don't have enough room for all that. Many capacitor
manufacturers use a shorthand notation to indicate capacitance on small caps.

If you have a capacitor that has nothing other than a three-digit number printed on it, the third digit
represents the number of zeros to add to the end of the first two digits. The resulting number is the
capacitance in pF. For example, 101 represents 100 pF: the digits 10 followed by one additional zero.

If there are only two digits listed, the number is simply the capacitance in pF. Thus, the digits 22 indicate
a 22 pF capacitor.

This shows how some common capacitor values are represented using this notation:

Marking Capacitance (pF) Capacitance (ìF)

101 100 pF 0.0001 ìF

221 220 pF 0.00022 ìF

471 470 pF 0.00047 ìF

102 1,000 pF 0.001 ìF

222 2,200 pF 0.0022 ìF

472 4,700 pF 0.0047 ìF

103 10,000 pF 0.01 ìF

223 22,000 pF 0.022 ìF

473 47,000 pF 0.047 ìF

104 100,000 pF 0.1 ìF

224 220,000 pF 0.22 ìF

474 470,000 pF 0.47 ìF

105 1,000,000 pF 1 ìF

225 2,200,000 pF 2.2 ìF

475 4,700,000 pF 4.7 ìF

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3/5/22, 9:10 AM <b>Electronics Components: How to Read Capacitance Values on a Capacitor</b> - dummies

You may also see a letter printed on the capacitor to indicate the tolerance. You can interpret the
tolerance letter as follows:

Letter Tolerance

A ±0.05 pF

B ±0.1 pF

C ±0.25 pF

D ±0.5 pF

E ±0.5%

F ±1%

G ±2%

H ±3%

J ±5 %

K ±10%

L ±15%

M
Search for articles and books ±20%
In This Article N ±30%

P –0%, + 100%

S –20%, + 50%
Introduction
W –0%, + 200%

X –20%, + 40%

Z –20%, + 80%

Notice that the tolerances for codes P through Z are a little odd. For codes P and W, the manufacturer
promises that the capacitance will be no less than the stated value but may be as much as 100% or
200% over the stated value.

For codes S, X, and Z, the actual capacitance may be as much as 20% below the stated value or as
much as 50%, 40%, or 80% over the stated value. For example, if the marking is 101P, the actual
capacitance is no less than 100 pF but may be as much as 200 pF. If the marking is 101Z, the
capacitance is between 80 pF and 180 pF.

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This article can be found in the category: Circuitry

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