TinkerNewsWeekly · DIY electronicsEst. 2025
TinkerNews
SBC

Raspberry Pi Zero W specs, pinout & datasheets

Single-board computer · Raspberry Pi · Released February 2017

The Pi Zero with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth added, for $10.

Raspberry Pi Zero W
Photo: Les Pounder from Blackpool, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CPU
Arm1176JZF-S (ARMv6), single core
Clock
1 GHz
RAM
512 MB
Storage
microSD card
Wireless
2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE
I/O voltage
3.3 V
Released
February 2017
Status
In production

Draft entry: these specs were compiled from the linked sources and are waiting for a second check. Spotted a mistake? Use the form at the end of the page.

Specifications

14 specs
Chip / SoC
Broadcom BCM2835[1]
CPU
Arm1176JZF-S (ARMv6), single core[2]
Clock
1 GHz[5]
RAM
512 MB[1]
Storage
microSD card[1]
GPIO
40-pin header (pre-soldered on the WH)[1]
I/O voltage
3.3 V[3]
Input voltage
5 V via micro-USB[1]
Wireless
2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE[8]
USB
1 × micro-USB OTG (plus a micro-USB power port)[1]
Video
Mini HDMI[1]
Expansion
CSI camera connector[1]
Dimensions
65 × 30 mm[6]
Launch price
US$10[5]

Can I still use it?

3 platforms
Raspberry Pi OS
Supported[7]32-bit image; the 64-bit image needs a 64-bit model such as the Pi 3 or later.
Mainline Linux
Supported[10]A device tree for this board is in the mainline kernel; features may still be missing.
CircuitPython
Supported[9]

As published by each project, checked weekly. A platform not listed has no published information here, which is not the same as no support.

Datasheets and documents

2 documents

Pinout

40 pins
Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO header pinout diagramJ8 (40-pin GPIO)13V325V3GPIO245V5GPIO36GND7GPIO48GPIO149GND10GPIO1511GPIO1712GPIO1813GPIO2714GND15GPIO2216GPIO23173V318GPIO2419GPIO1020GND21GPIO922GPIO2523GPIO1124GPIO825GND26GPIO727ID_SD28ID_SC29GPIO530GND31GPIO632GPIO1233GPIO1334GND35GPIO1936GPIO1637GPIO2638GPIO2039GND40GPIO21
Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO header[3]
  • Power
  • Ground
  • GPIO
  • Special
  • Not connected
Pin table (40 pins)
J8 (40-pin GPIO)
PinLabelKindFunctions
13V3Power
25VPower
3GPIO2GPIOI2C1 SDA
45VPower
5GPIO3GPIOI2C1 SCL
6GNDGround
7GPIO4GPIOGPCLK0
8GPIO14GPIOUART TXD
9GNDGround
10GPIO15GPIOUART RXD
11GPIO17GPIO
12GPIO18GPIOPCM CLK, PWM0
13GPIO27GPIO
14GNDGround
15GPIO22GPIO
16GPIO23GPIO
173V3Power
18GPIO24GPIO
19GPIO10GPIOSPI0 MOSI
20GNDGround
21GPIO9GPIOSPI0 MISO
22GPIO25GPIO
23GPIO11GPIOSPI0 SCLK
24GPIO8GPIOSPI0 CE0
25GNDGround
26GPIO7GPIOSPI0 CE1
27ID_SDSpecialGPIO0, HAT EEPROM I2C SDA
28ID_SCSpecialGPIO1, HAT EEPROM I2C SCL
29GPIO5GPIO
30GNDGround
31GPIO6GPIO
32GPIO12GPIOPWM0
33GPIO13GPIOPWM1
34GNDGround
35GPIO19GPIOPCM FS, SPI1 MISO
36GPIO16GPIOSPI1 CE2
37GPIO26GPIO
38GPIO20GPIOPCM DIN, SPI1 MOSI
39GNDGround
40GPIO21GPIOPCM DOUT, SPI1 SCLK

Gotchas

2 known issues
  • 3.3 V only. The GPIO pins are 3.3 V. Do not connect 5 V signals or components to them.[3]
  • Little current per pin. Each GPIO pin can supply up to about 16 mA and all pins together about 50 mA; drive motors and other loads through a transistor or driver board.[4]

What changed

From the specs

Since the Raspberry Pi Zero

SpecRaspberry Pi ZeroRaspberry Pi Zero W
GPIO40-pin header, unpopulated40-pin header (pre-soldered on the WH)
Wireless—2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE
ExpansionCSI camera connector from version 1.3CSI camera connector
Launch priceUS$5US$10

Next came the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

SpecRaspberry Pi Zero WRaspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Chip / SoCBroadcom BCM2835Raspberry Pi RP3A0 (BCM2710A1 die plus 512 MB RAM in one package)
CPUArm1176JZF-S (ARMv6), single core4 × Cortex-A53 (ARMv8, 64-bit)
GPIO40-pin header (pre-soldered on the WH)40-pin header, unpopulated (or pre-soldered "with headers")
Wireless2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.2 and BLE
Launch priceUS$10US$15

Power and battery

3 facts
Recommended supply
1.2 A[4]
USB peripheral budget
Limited only by the supply, board and connector ratings[4]
Typical bare-board draw
150 mA[4]

History and use today

Editorial

History

Launched on the Pi's fifth birthday in February 2017, the Zero W added the wireless chip from the Pi 3 to the Zero board.[5]

Still useful for

Still the cheapest networked Raspberry Pi, but its single ARMv6 core is slow; the Zero 2 W fits the same cases with about five times the performance.

Projects from the archive

1 build

Sources

10 sources
  1. Raspberry Pi hardware introduction (documentation source)
  2. Processors, Raspberry Pi documentation
  3. GPIO and the 40-pin header, Raspberry Pi documentation (source)
  4. Power supplies, Raspberry Pi documentation (source)
  5. Raspberry Pi Zero W joins the family, Raspberry Pi news
  6. Raspberry Pi, Wikipedia
  7. Raspberry Pi OS downloads, Raspberry Pi
  8. Raspberry Pi Zero W product page
  9. CircuitPython board definition (raspberrypi_zero_w) at 83b54473a1
  10. Linux kernel device tree (bcm2835-rpi-zero-w.dts) at 551c722f40

Spotted a mistake?

Reviewed by hand

Every report is read by a person and checked against a source before anything changes. Please link one if you have it.

Report a mistake