Capacitors

Calculator for capacitor codes

Code on the capacitor: Capacitance:

How to read the code

Small ceramic capacitors have no room for the whole value, so a three-digit code is printed on them. The code always tells us how many picofarads (pF) the capacitor has:

the first two digits are a number,
the third digit tells us how many zeros to write after that number.

Example: 104 ⇒ 10 and four more zeros ⇒ 100 000 pF = 100 nF = 0.1 µF.

A letter after the digits is the tolerance, how far the real value may be from the printed one: J = ±5 %, K = ±10 %, M = ±20 %. So the code 104K means 100 nF ±10 %.

Electrolytic capacitors have enough room, so the value is printed in full, e.g. 100 µF 16 V.

Units

1 µF = 1000 nF = 1 000 000 pF

Common codes

Code	pF	nF	µF
220	22 pF	0.022 nF
101	100 pF	0.1 nF
471	470 pF	0.47 nF
102	1000 pF	1 nF	0.001 µF
222	2200 pF	2.2 nF	0.0022 µF
103	10 000 pF	10 nF	0.01 µF
473	47 000 pF	47 nF	0.047 µF
104	100 000 pF	100 nF	0.1 µF
224	220 000 pF	220 nF	0.22 µF
105	1 000 000 pF	1000 nF	1 µF