14 of the 20 features in our table differ between the ESP32 and the ESP32-C3.
Dual-core, Bluetooth Classic, Ethernet MAC, DAC
The original: two cores, Wi-Fi, and the only chip here with Bluetooth Classic, an Ethernet MAC and a DAC together. The most boards, examples and libraries.
Watch out: ADC2 pins stop working while Wi-Fi is on, and strapping and flash pins limit the free GPIOs. No native USB.
Small RISC-V, Wi-Fi 4, BLE 5, 5 µA deep sleep
A small, low-cost RISC-V chip with Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth LE 5, USB Serial/JTAG built in and 5 µA in deep sleep.
Watch out: One core, no PSRAM and only 5 ADC pins you can rely on, since ESP-IDF doesn’t support ADC2.
| Feature | ESP32 | ESP32-C3 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2 × Xtensa LX6, 240 MHz | 1 × RISC-V, 160 MHz |
| Low-power core | ULP (FSM) | No |
| SRAM | 520 KB | 400 KB |
| PSRAM | External (4 MB mapped, up to 8 MB via himem); 2 MB in-package on some versions | No |
| Bluetooth | Classic (BR/EDR) + LE 4.2 | LE 5 |
| USB | No (USB-serial chip on the board) | Serial/JTAG (flash, serial, debug) |
| GPIO | 34 | 22 |
| ADC channels | 18 (ADC1: 8) | 6 (ADC1: 5) |
| DAC | 2 × 8-bit | No |
| Touch pins | 10 | No |
| Camera | Parallel (DVP) | No |
| Display interface | Parallel (i80, via I2S) | SPI only |
| Ethernet MAC | Yes (RMII) | No (SPI module) |
| Deep sleep | 10 µA | 5 µA |
Same on both: Wi-Fi, Thread / Zigbee, TWAI (CAN), AI / DSP, ESPHome, and Arduino-ESP32.
Open the ESP32 comparison →Tick what your project needs and see which of the eight chips fits best.
ESP32 pinout: safe GPIO, strapping pins and ADC2 →
The ESP32 has Bluetooth Classic, a camera interface (parallel), a display interface (parallel i80), and wired Ethernet with the built-in MAC. The ESP32-C3 has USB on the chip for flashing and the serial monitor and a lower deep-sleep current (5 against 10 µA).
The ESP32-C3: 5 µA against 10 µA for the ESP32, as typical figures for the chip alone in Espressif’s datasheets. On a development board the regulator, the LEDs and the USB-serial chip usually draw more than the chip itself.
Arduino-ESP32 and ESP-IDF support both chips, so most code builds for either; pin numbers, strapping pins and some peripherals change. Anything that uses Bluetooth Classic or a camera interface (parallel) won’t carry over: the ESP32-C3 doesn’t have that hardware.
ESP32 vs ESP32-C5 ESP32 vs ESP32-C6 ESP32 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32 vs ESP32-S3 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-C5 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-C6 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-S3
Figures from Espressif datasheets, ESPHome and Arduino-ESP32 documentation, checked in November 2026.