USB Transfer Speed: All You Need to Know [2024 Updated]

How much do you know about USB transfer speed? How fast can it be? If you want to know the answer, read this article to learn more.

USB transfer speed can play an important role when you use this portable device to transfer data. You certainly don't want to spend a long time waiting for the transfer process to complete. Thus, it's essential to consider factors such as data transfer speed when choosing a USB.

This article on EaseUS focuses on the USB transfer speed. You will learn about the different USB versions and their average transfer speed. What is the difference between them exactly? Knowing the USB transfer speed will help you know its overall performance. Read this article to find out how fast a USB can get.

USB Transfer Speed: How Fast It Can Be

As a matter of fact, the USB transfer speed increases with each new version of the USB specification, which is the same with USB read/write speed, In this section, you will get to know about the USB transfer speed for different USB specifications in the chart below:

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The specifications of USB have evolved since the day USB was introduced. Here is a brief information about how USB is developed:

USB 1.0: Released in 1996 as the first generation of USB.

USB 2.0: Came in 2000. It is also known as High-Speed USB, with a significant speed improvement compared to USB 1.0.

USB 3.0: Released in 2008, known as SuperSpeed USB. The increase in speed marks a difference in large file transfer.

USB 3.1: This came to market in 2013 and is known as SuperSpeed+, which boosts the actual transfer speed to 800 MB/s.

USB 3.2: In 2017, this version brought advancement in transfer rate again.

USB 4.0: The newest version of USB came into being in 2019. USB 4 brings the data transfer rate into Gbps.

Read to know about the tools to test your USB flash drive speed.

What Can Affect USB Transfer Speed

In real-world case scenarios, the actual transfer speed of a USB can be influenced by many factors. Thus, it might be difficult for the USB to reach its maximum transfer speed in real situations. Various factors can affect the transfer speed. If you want to speed up your USB, you can consider the factors below:

• Cable quality: The quality of the cable you use to connect the USB can greatly affect the transfer speed. Frayed wires or tears and wares after a long time of usage can cause the speed to slow down.
• Device specifications: The specifications of the USB have a direct impact on the USB transfer speed. The newer the specification, the faster it can be.  
• USB port compatibility: Although some new versions have backward compatibility with the old version, it can be slower when using the older port. 
• The source device: USB is widely used to transfer data between devices. Problems such as bad sectors and corrupted file systems with your source device can affect its performance.
• The target device: You also need to check your USB performance when it starts to slow down. Detecting the problems and fixing them should make it run faster.

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Conclusion

As you can see above, each version of USB offers different transfer speed, with each new version comes with significant improvements over its predecessor. If you are looking for a USB with fast transfer speed, USB 4.0 can be a good choice. You also need to bear in mind that the actual transfer speed can be influenced by multiple factors. Therefore, don’t forget to check your computer's USB interface, its performance when choosing a USB.