Chip Series Comparison

The comparison below covers key features of chips supported by ESP-IDF. For the full list of features please refer to respective datasheets in Section Related Documents.

Chip Series Comparison

Feature

ESP32 Series

ESP32-S2 Series

ESP32-C3 Series

Launch year

2016

2020

2020

Variants

See ESP32 Datasheet (PDF)

See ESP32-S2 Datasheet (PDF)

See ESP32-C3 Datasheet (PDF)

Core

Xtensa® dual-core 32-bit LX6 with 600 MIPS (in total); 200 MIPS for ESP32-U4WDH/ESP32-S0WD (single-core variants); 400 MIPS for ESP32-D2WD

Xtensa® single-core 32-bit LX7 with 300 MIPS

32-bit single-core RISC-V

Wi-Fi protocols

802.11 b/g/n, 2.4 GHz

802.11 b/g/n, 2.4 GHz

802.11 b/g/n, 2.4 GHz

Bluetooth®

Bluetooth v4.2 BR/EDR and Bluetooth Low Energy

✖️

Bluetooth 5.0

Typical frequency

240 MHz (160 MHz for ESP32-S0WD, ESP32-D2WD, and ESP32-U4WDH)

240 MHz

160 MHz

SRAM

520 KB

320 KB

400 KB

ROM

448 KB for booting and core functions

128 KB for booting and core functions

384 KB for booting and core functions

Embedded flash

2 MB, 4 MB, or none, depending on variants

2 MB, 4 MB, or none, depending on variants

4 MB or none, depending on variants

External flash

Up to 16 MB device, address 11 MB + 248 KB each time

Up to 1 GB device, address 11.5 MB each time

Up to 16 MB device, address 8 MB each time

External RAM

Up to 8 MB device, address 4 MB each time

Up to 1 GB device, address 11.5 MB each time

✖️

Cache

✔️ Two-way set associative

✔️ Four-way set associative, independent instruction cache and data cache

✔️ Eight-way set associative, 32-bit data/instruction bus width

Peripherals

ADC

Two 12-bit, 18 channels

Two 13-bit, 20 channels

Two 12-bit SAR ADCs, at most 6 channels

DAC

Two 8-bit channels

Two 8-bit channels

✖️

Temperature sensor

✖️

1

1

Touch sensor

10

14

✖️

Hall sensor

1

✖️

✖️

GPIO

34

43

22

SPI

4

4 with more modes, compared with ESP32

3

LCD interface

1

1

✖️

UART

3

2 1

2 1

I2C

2

2

1

I2S

2, can be configured to operate with 8/16/32/40/48-bit resolution as an input or output channel.

1, can be configured to operate with 8/16/24/32/48/64-bit resolution as an input or output channel.

1, can be configured to operate with 8/16/24/32-bit resolution as an input or output channel.

Camera interface

1

1

✖️

DMA

Dedicated DMA to UART, SPI, I2S, SDIO slave, SD/MMC host, EMAC, BT, and Wi-Fi

Dedicated DMA to UART, SPI, AES, SHA, I2S, and ADC Controller

General-purpose, 3 TX channels, 3 RX channels

RMT

8 channels

4 channels 1, can be configured to TX/RX channels

4 channels 2, 2 TX channels, 2 RX channels

Pulse counter

8 channels

4 channels 1

✖️

LED PWM

16 channels

8 channels 1

6 channels 2

USB OTG

✖️

1

✖️

TWAI® controller (compatible with ISO 11898-1)

1

1

1

SD/SDIO/MMC host controller

1

✖️

✖️

SDIO slave controller

1

✖️

✖️

Ethernet MAC

1

✖️

✖️

ULP

ULP FSM

PicoRV32 core with 8 KB SRAM, ULP FSM with more instructions

✖️

Debug Assist

✖️

✖️

1

Security

Secure boot

✔️

✔️ Faster and safer, compared with ESP32

✔️ Faster and safer, compared with ESP32

Flash encryption

✔️

✔️ Support for PSRAM encryption. Safer, compared with ESP32

✔️ Safer, compared with ESP32

OTP

1024-bit

4096-bit

4096-bit

AES

✔️ AES-128, AES-192, AES-256 (FIPS PUB 197)

✔️ AES-128, AES-192, AES-256 (FIPS PUB 197)

✔️ AES-128, AES-256 (FIPS PUB 197)

HASH

SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 (FIPS PUB 180-4)

SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA-512/224, SHA-512/256, SHA-512/t (FIPS PUB 180-4); DMA support

SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256 (FIPS PUB 180-4)

RSA

Up to 4096 bits

Up to 4096 bits, improved acceleration options compared with ESP32

Up to 3072 bits

RNG

✔️

✔️

✔️

HMAC

✖️

✔️

✔️

Digital signature

✖️

✔️

✔️

XTS

✖️

✔️ XTS-AES-128, XTS-AES-256

✔️ XTS-AES-128

Other

Deep-sleep (ULP sensor-monitored pattern)

100 μA (when ADC work with a duty cycle of 1%)

22 μA (when touch sensors work with a duty cycle of 1%)

No such pattern

Size

QFN48 5*5, 6*6, depending on variants

QFN56 7*7

QFN32 5*5

Note 1: Reduced chip area compared with ESP32

Note 2: Reduced chip area compared with ESP32 and ESP32-S2

Note 3: Die size: ESP32-C3 < ESP32-S2 < ESP32