Which ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 do I have?
Applies to: ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 official boards from Espressif. Third-party boards with a DevKitC-1-like layout are out of scope — their silkscreen and revisions differ.
The question
“My board says ESP32-S3 on it somewhere. Which exact thing do I hold, and why do two tutorials disagree about it?”
Most confusion comes from mixing up five layers that all carry the same name. The official documentation pins each layer separately:
| Layer | What it is | Values on this board |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | The SoC soldered inside the module | ESP32-S3 |
| Module | The metal-shielded package on the board | ESP32-S3-WROOM-1, WROOM-1U, or WROOM-2 |
| Board | The development board itself | ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (or DevKitC-1U with external antenna connector) |
| Sales SKU | The ordering suffix of the board | 9 variants, e.g. N8R8, N16R8, N32R16V — see below |
| PCB revision | The hardware revision of the board | v1.0 (initial release) and v1.1, both on the market |
Identify the module
Look at the metal shield on the board. Its silkscreen names the module family:
- ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 — PCB antenna on the module
- ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U — external antenna connector instead of the PCB antenna (the board is then a DevKitC-1U)
- ESP32-S3-WROOM-2 — currently shipped as the N32R16V variant (32 MB flash, 16 MB PSRAM)
The module suffix after the family name encodes flash/PSRAM sizes — for example N8R8V means 8 MB flash + 8 MB PSRAM. Check your suffix against the ordering table in the WROOM-1/1U datasheet and the WROOM-2 datasheet.
Identify the sales SKU
The ordering table from the official guide (pinned snapshot, ordering-info.inc):
| Part number | On-board module | Flash | PSRAM | Antenna | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N32R16V | WROOM-2 | 32 MB | 16 MB | PCB | active |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N16R8 | WROOM-1 | 16 MB | 8 MB | PCB | active |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1U-N16R8 | WROOM-1U | 16 MB | 8 MB | external connector | active |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N8R8 | WROOM-1 | 8 MB | 8 MB | PCB | active |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1U-N8R8 | WROOM-1U | 8 MB | 8 MB | external connector | active |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N8 | WROOM-1 | 8 MB | — | PCB | EOL |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N8R2 | WROOM-1 | 8 MB | 2 MB | PCB | EOL |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1U-N8 | WROOM-1U | 8 MB | — | external connector | EOL |
| ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1U-N8R2 | WROOM-1U | 8 MB | 2 MB | external connector | EOL |
Note: for the R8 boards the table lists the module as a plain “WROOM-1/1U” without the storage suffix — see the module datasheet for the exact shipped module variant.
Identify the PCB revision — it changes the LED pin
Both revisions are on the market at the same time. The official revision note is explicit about the difference:
Both the initial and v1.1 versions of ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 are available on the market. The main difference lies in the GPIO assignment for the RGB LED: the initial version uses GPIO48, whereas v1.1 uses GPIO38.
The revision matters whenever you drive the onboard RGB LED — see Why the onboard LED is GPIO38 or GPIO48.
To confirm which revision you hold:
- Check the board silkscreen / seller listing for a version marking, and compare with the board photos in the two user guides (v1.0 and v1.1 annotated photos differ).
- Compare the schematic — the official Related Documents sections link per-revision schematics.
- Observing the LED (not an identification procedure): flashing the known blink examples on GPIO48 and then GPIO38 tells you which GPIO drives the LED on the board in front of you — the number your blink code actually needs. It is not by itself proof of the PCB revision: a non-reference or unknown board may wire the LED differently. Steps 1–2 (silkscreen, seller, schematics) remain the identification path; if they fail, ask the seller which revision ships — do not guess from the LED alone, and do not wire anything external while the board is unidentified.
What this page cannot tell you
- The official documentation does not provide a photo-annotated “silkscreen decoder” for physical revision identification. Steps 1–2 above work from the official guides, but Espressif has no dedicated revision-identification document. If your board does not match either guide, do not guess — ask the seller which revision they ship.
- Clone boards marketed as “DevKitC-1 compatible” may mix revisions or use different LED pins entirely. Nothing on this page transfers to them.
Sources
- ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 v1.1 User Guide — Description of Components, Hardware Revision Details (commit
5c06bf18) - ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 v1.0 User Guide — the older revision (commit
5c06bf18) - Ordering information (commit
5c06bf18) - MCUID data record: ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 — revision-scoped published fields with fixed sources