mAh

Units & Measurements abbreviation · Engineering Unit

mAh
Stands forMilliampere-hour
CategoriesUnits & Measurements

mAh stands for Milliampere-hour, an engineering unit abbreviation.

Electric charge unit used to rate the capacity of phone, earbud and power-bank batteries. A 5,000 mAh phone battery can in theory deliver 5,000 milliamperes for one hour, or 500 mA for ten hours.

Example: The phone packs a 5,000 mAh battery with 45 W fast charging.

Usage notes

Because mAh ignores voltage, it only compares fairly between batteries of the same chemistry and voltage; watt-hours measure energy directly. Power banks quote mAh at the 3.6 to 3.7 V cell voltage, so a 10,000 mAh bank delivers noticeably less once converted to 5 V USB output. Also written mA·h.

More engineering unit abbreviations

  • lb-ft – Pound-feet
  • lbf – Pound-force
  • lm – Lumen
  • lx – Lux
  • m/s – Meters per second
  • mA – Milliampere
  • mbar – Millibar
  • MBH – Thousand BTU per hour
  • Mcf – Thousand cubic feet
  • MFD – Microfarad
  • MHz – Megahertz
  • MJ – Megajoule

See all 103 engineering unit abbreviations →