17 of the 20 features in our table differ between the ESP32 and the ESP32-P4.
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.
400 MHz dual-core, MIPI camera and display, no radio
The most powerful: two cores at 400 MHz, MIPI camera and display, an H.264 encoder, USB 2.0 high speed and Ethernet, but no radio.
Watch out: No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on the chip: boards add a second chip, often an ESP32-C6. Early revisions (v1.x) run at 360 MHz.
| Feature | ESP32 | ESP32-P4 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2 × Xtensa LX6, 240 MHz | 2 × RISC-V, 400 MHz |
| Low-power core | ULP (FSM) | LP RISC-V core |
| SRAM | 520 KB | 768 KB |
| PSRAM | External (4 MB mapped, up to 8 MB via himem); 2 MB in-package on some versions | In-package, 16 or 32 MB |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 4 (802.11 b/g/n), 2.4 GHz | No |
| Bluetooth | Classic (BR/EDR) + LE 4.2 | No |
| USB | No (USB-serial chip on the board) | OTG high speed + full speed, Serial/JTAG |
| GPIO | 34 | 55 |
| ADC channels | 18 (ADC1: 8) | 14 |
| DAC | 2 × 8-bit | No |
| Touch pins | 10 | 14 |
| Camera | Parallel (DVP) | MIPI-CSI + parallel |
| Display interface | Parallel (i80, via I2S) | MIPI-DSI + parallel |
| TWAI (CAN) | 1 | 3 |
| Deep sleep | 10 µA | See datasheet |
| AI / DSP | No | 128-bit SIMD (AI/DSP) |
| ESPHome | Yes (ESP-IDF or Arduino) | Yes (ESP-IDF, Wi-Fi from a second chip) |
Same on both: Thread / Zigbee, Ethernet MAC, 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 Wi-Fi on the chip (Wi-Fi 4 on 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Classic, and a true analog output (DAC). The ESP32-P4 has USB 2.0 high speed (480 Mbit/s), a MIPI-CSI camera interface, a MIPI-DSI display interface, and H.264 video encoding in hardware.
Espressif rates the ESP32 at 10 µA in deep sleep; for the ESP32-P4, check the latest datasheet. On a board the regulator and the LEDs usually draw more than either chip.
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 Wi-Fi on the chip (Wi-Fi 4 on 2.4 GHz) or Bluetooth LE won’t carry over: the ESP32-P4 doesn’t have that hardware. In ESPHome the ESP32-P4 works only with the ESP-IDF framework, so components that need Arduino won’t build.
ESP32 vs ESP32-C3 ESP32 vs ESP32-C5 ESP32 vs ESP32-C6 ESP32 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32 vs ESP32-S3 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-C5 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-C6 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-H2 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-P4 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-P4 vs ESP32-S3
Figures from Espressif datasheets, ESPHome and Arduino-ESP32 documentation, checked in November 2026.