The charging situation for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro has changed this year. Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector has been replaced with USB-C, so you can now charge your phone with almost any USB-C cable and USB-C power adapter you can find online. But what exactly do you need to make sure you can top up your iPhone battery as quickly as possible?

Because USB-C is an open standard, you can use virtually any USB-C cable you can find. The iPhone 15 comes with a nice braided cable, but you can use any USB-C cable you can find—even ones marketed as “Android” phone cables. However, if it seems like your iPhone is charging slowly, you probably need to replace your charger.

Back when Apple still included accessories, the iPhone came with a small 5W power adapter. Because they were included with the iPhone for so long, there are still plenty of them on the market. If you have one of these, you can use it with the iPhone 15 without any problems. All you need is a USB-C to USB-A cable to connect it.

However, it will only charge your phone at 5W speed. That was fine when smartphone battery capacity was much smaller five years ago, but iPhone batteries are much larger these days, so charging at 5 watts can take four or five hours to go from zero to 100%. It’s slow.

Fast charging of iPhone 15

To fast charge the iPhone 15, you’ll need a higher wattage charger. The iPhone’s USB-C port can technically receive power at speeds up to 27 watts, but in practice, the charging speed drops above ~20 watts. So, with a USB-C cable and an Apple 20W USB-C power adapter, you can charge the iPhone 15 from zero to 50% in about 30 minutes, and from zero to 100% in under 2 hours.

However, you are not limited to using Apple accessories. There are many higher wattage USB-C charging options on the market that are more convenient than Apple’s adapters, like this dual USB-C compact charger from Anker. It is also perfectly safe to use power adapters rated at more than 20 watts; they will automatically charge your iPhone at the maximum supported speed.

This means, for example, that if you have a USB-C power adapter for your MacBook, you can use that and charge your phone at full speed too. If your MacBook itself is plugged into power and charging, you can even plug your phone into one of the laptop’s USB-C ports and charge it at nearly full speed.

In fact, USB-C means you can now charge quickly all your Apple devices with the same cable and a 60-watt power adapter (or higher).