Plugs and voltage
Which plug and what voltage, by country. Most modern chargers handle the voltage, so the plug is usually the only real problem.
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Almost every modern charger accepts 100–240 V, so the plug shape is usually the only real problem. Check the small print on the adapter before buying a converter.
| Country | Plug type | Voltage | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan 台灣 | A, B | 110 V | 60 Hz |
| Hong Kong 香港 | G | 220 V | 50 Hz |
| China 中國 | A, C, I | 220 V | 50 Hz |
| Japan 日本 | A, B | 100 V | 50 / 60 Hz |
| Korea 韓國 | C, F | 220 V | 60 Hz |
| Singapore 新加坡 | G | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Malaysia 馬來西亞 | G | 240 V | 50 Hz |
| Thailand 泰國 | A, B, C, O | 220 V | 50 Hz |
| United States | A, B | 120 V | 60 Hz |
| Canada | A, B | 120 V | 60 Hz |
| United Kingdom | G | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Ireland | G | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Germany | C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| France | C, E | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Italy | C, F, L | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Switzerland | C, J | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Spain | C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Netherlands | C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Australia | I | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| New Zealand | I | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| India | C, D, M | 230 V | 50 Hz |
| Brazil | C, N | 127 / 220 V | 60 Hz |
| Philippines | A, B, C | 220 V | 60 Hz |
| Vietnam | A, C, F | 220 V | 50 Hz |
| Indonesia | C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz |
Check the charger before you buy an adapter
Almost every laptop charger, phone charger and camera charger made in the last twenty years accepts 100–240 V, 50/60 Hz. It is printed on the brick in small type. If it says that, the voltage is a non-issue anywhere in the world and you need nothing but a plug adapter.
A plug adapter changes the shape. A voltage converter changes the voltage and is heavy, expensive and rarely needed. Shops sell the second to people who need the first.
What genuinely needs a converter is anything with a heating element or a motor built for one voltage: hair dryers, travel kettles, curling irons, some shavers. Those are also the appliances that draw the most current, so the converter has to be a large one.
The region, specifically
Taiwan is 110 V with type A/B plugs — the same as Japan and North America. Hong Kong is 220 V with type G — the same as the UK. They are neighbours with nothing in common electrically, which catches out people travelling between them regularly.
Mainland China is 220 V and accepts types A, C and I, so a Taiwanese plug usually fits physically but is being fed twice the voltage. That is exactly the combination that destroys equipment, and it is why the voltage column matters more than the plug column.
Frequency is mostly irrelevant now
50 Hz against 60 Hz affects synchronous motors — old clocks, some record decks — and essentially nothing else. Switching power supplies, which is everything with a USB socket, do not care.
Japan is the interesting case: it runs 50 Hz in the east and 60 Hz in the west, a split inherited from buying German generators for Tokyo and American ones for Osaka in the 1890s and never resolved.