A real person reads these.

Questions that come up most

• 01Can this tell me whether a cable will work with my equipment?

  No. No specification or compatibility claim is made here, of any kind. There is no figure given for power, current, speed, resolution or version, no brand or model is named, and there is no cable model data behind this at all.
  
  Whether a particular cable will do a particular job is decided by how it was made, not by the shape of its ends. Two cables that look the same in your hand can differ completely inside. What this does is tell you which family the shape puts it in, where on the cable the difference is recorded — and where nothing is recorded, so that the honest answer is that you do not know.
• 02Can I just take a photo and show you?

  No — and there is nowhere on this site to try. There is no upload, on any plan. Two reasons, and both of them matter:
  
  One. What decides the answer is a mark smaller than a grain of rice and a line of print running along the jacket. A photograph taken by hand, in a drawer, in ordinary light, almost never resolves either of them. A photograph that does not resolve them does not produce no answer — it produces a confident wrong one, and that is worse than nothing.
  
  Two. Declaring what a cable can carry from a picture of it is a specification claim. This service makes none.
• 03Is this cable still safe to use?

  No judgement about that is made here, about any cable, ever.
  
  If it looks damaged, if the outer covering is split or deformed, if a connector is loose, or if it gets warm in use — do not use it. That is not a judgement about this particular cable; it is the only sensible default.
  
  Anything to do with mains power, or with cutting, opening, joining or repairing a cable, has to go to someone qualified. When wording of that sort appears in what you type, the reading stops and you are told so — there is no partial answer in those cases.
• 04How should I throw these cables away?

  That is not covered here, anywhere, for anywhere. How cables are meant to be disposed of differs from place to place. Whatever applies where you are is what to follow — this does not cover it.
  
  No recycling scheme, service or organisation is recommended, and no cable is sorted into a waste category. Those rules differ by country and often by council, they change, and writing down a version of them here would be writing down something that is wrong for most readers.
• 05What happens to what I type in?

  It is not used to train any model. Not yours, not anyone else’s. What you type is processed to produce your reading. On a paid plan it is saved against your account only so that you can look back at your own list, and you can delete any of it, or all of it, whenever you like.
  
  The full account is in the privacy notice and the AI notice.
• 06How accurate is it?

  Putting a cable into a family by the shape of its ends is the reliable part, and it is the part that is done here in your browser from a fixed table of shapes rather than by a model guessing.
  
  Everything past that depends on what is actually printed on the cable in front of you. Where there is no printing, there is no further narrowing to be had by looking, and you are told that rather than given something that sounds better. Output is produced in part by an automated system and can be wrong. It is a starting point for your own observation, not a verdict, and it is never a substitute for advice from someone qualified.
• 07Can I cancel, and can I get a refund?

  Yes, at any time, in one step. Cancelling is on your billing page and takes the same number of clicks as subscribing did. There is no offer, no survey and no call.
  
  You also have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days of the contract being made. Because this is digital content and a digital service, that right ends early only if you have expressly asked for it to start during those 14 days and acknowledged that you will lose the right once it has been fully performed — two separate, unticked boxes at checkout, never pre-ticked. Full detail, including the statutory cancellation form, is on the cancellation and refunds page.
• 08What happens to unused allowance?

  It does not roll over. Allowance belongs to the period it was issued for.
  
  It is worth being exact about what it is: allowance is a measure of use of this service. It is not money, it is not stored value, it cannot be redeemed for cash and it cannot be transferred to anyone. There are no top-up packs and no wallet — if you run out, you either wait for the next period or move up a plan.
• 09Is there an age limit?

  You need to be at least 18 to hold an account here or to subscribe to a paid plan.