Type B — US earthed (NEMA 5-15)
- Pins
- 3
- Spacing
- 13 mm
- Rated
- 15 A
- Earthed
- yes
Drawn from pin dimensions at one scale across the whole site — hold a plug against the screen and it should look familiar.
Type A's earthed sibling, standard across North and Central America and Japan: the same two flat blades plus a round earth pin sitting below them. The earth pin is deliberately longer than the blades, so a device is connected to ground before it ever sees power — a quiet piece of safety engineering hidden in an otherwise plain plug. Rated 15 A on the 120 V networks it serves, so it moves less power than its European counterparts despite the same-looking wall.
What fits a Type B socket
Besides its own plug: Type A. Type A plugs fit B sockets fine — the earth hole simply goes unused. B plugs do not fit A-only sockets; never cut or bend the earth pin to force one.
Facts verified against IEC World Plugs — Type B. Prose is our own.
Where you'll meet it
- American Samoa120 V
- Antigua and Barbuda230 V
- Aruba127 V
- Bahamas120 V
- Barbados115 V
- Belize110/220 V
- Bermuda120 V
- British Virgin Islands110 V
- Canada120 V
- Cayman Islands120 V
- Colombia110 V
- Costa Rica120 V
- Cuba110 V
- Dominican Republic110 V
- Ecuador120 V
- El Salvador115 V
- Guam110 V
- Guatemala120 V
- Guyana240 V
- Haiti110 V
- Honduras110 V
- Jamaica110 V
- Japan100 V
- Jordan230 V
- Laos230 V
- Lebanon220 V
- Liberia120/220 V
- Mexico127 V
- Micronesia120 V
- Montserrat230 V
- Nicaragua120 V
- Niger220 V
- Palau120 V
- Panama110 V
- Peru220 V
- Philippines230 V
- Puerto Rico120 V
- Saint Kitts and Nevis230 V
- Taiwan110 V
- Thailand220 V
- Trinidad and Tobago115 V
- Turkmenistan220 V
- Turks and Caicos Islands120 V
- United States120 V
- United States Virgin Islands110 V
- Venezuela120 V
- Vietnam220 V