What does the “Qi” symbol on your phone charger mean?

Whether on your wireless charger at home or in your car, you may have noticed the “Qi” symbol made up of lowercase letters “qi” in a rounded font. This means that the charger supports the Qi charging standard and can charge any compatible device, regardless of manufacturer. This standard uses electromagnetic induction technology to send energy from the transmitter (charger) to the receiver (your phone or other Qi-enabled device) for cable-free charging. Although it is now the de facto wireless charging technology for mobile devices and their accessories, other options have been proposed along the way.

Before Qi came to market, mobile devices used proprietary technology or alternative standards such as Powermat and Palm’s Touchstone. However, Qi has won the wireless charging war, as other solutions have not been widely adopted by the market. It is maintained by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which develops it and certifies compatible devices. The standard was introduced in 2010 as smartphones became popular and was initially capable of transmitting just 5 watts of power. However, over the years, the Qi standard has evolved to handle 25W power delivery and support magnetic wireless charging, a feature popularized by Apple’s Qi-based MagSafe technology.

You’ll find Qi charging support in smartphones, tablets, wireless headphones, e-readers, and a variety of other gadgets. However, because devices can support different versions of Qi, their capabilities differ. It is therefore important to understand how they work. Early versions of Qi aimed to improve charging stability, compatibility, and foreign object detection for safer charging. 2017 brought support for Extended Power Profile (EPP), which enables “fast wireless charging” at up to 15W on compatible devices, while the original 5W standard became Basic Power Profile (BPP).

The next major evolution of this wireless charging standard came with the launch of Qi2 in 2023, inspired by MagSafe and introduced a magnetic power profile (MPP) for better alignment between the device and charger. WPC has further improved the Qi standard with Qi 2.2, also known as Qi2 25W, in 2025, which, as the name suggests, supports 25W charging. Phones supporting this latest Qi standard include the Pixel 11 series, the Pixel 10 Pro XL with its large screen, some iPhone 17 models, and the increasingly refined Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Since there’s no easy way to visually tell if a phone supports Qi wireless charging, you’ll need to check the device’s manual or the specifications provided by the manufacturer. This will also tell you if the phone supports an older version of the 15W limited standard or newer Qi2 versions. That said, wireless charging is a feature common to most high-end phones and some mid-range models.

Although all modern mobile devices using wireless charging rely on the Qi standard, some also use proprietary technology to deliver faster charging speeds. For example, OnePlus uses AirVOOC to provide 50W wireless charging with the OnePlus 15 and its massive battery. In such cases, while you can use a typical Qi wireless charger to charge the phone, you will need the company’s specific wireless charger that supports this proprietary technology to get the highest charging speeds, as standard Qi chargers will not deliver beyond what they are rated for.