8 Places You Can Buy A New USB-C Cable, Ranked Worst To Best

We need USB-C cables for all our devices nowadays, so you can buy them at all sorts of places. You probably wouldn't find something like an AUX or DisplayPort cable at a dollar store, but you can more likely than not find a USB-C cable (or at least a USB-A-to-USB-C cable).

But not all USB-C cables are created equal. Some are not capable of fast charging, while others may not be able to deliver the power required to charge larger devices, such as laptops. Picking up a new cable is not as easy as picking the first one you see — doing that could leave you with low-quality wires that won't last long.

However, you can mitigate this frustration a bit by choosing the right places to buy USB-C cables from in the first place. Some stores, like Best Buy, will generally have higher-quality cables available than a dollar store, so you're less likely to come away with a bad or faulty wire. If you start in the right place, you'll have a better time.

Getting a used USB-C cable is by far the worst way to pick one up. You might save a few dollars if you pick one up at a garage sale or on Facebook Marketplace, but the drawbacks make it not worth the effort.

It can make sense that people are selling used cables online or at a garage sale. With almost every device having a USB-C port nowadays, many people will end up with extra cables on their hands. If they're not donating them, there seems to be no harm in selling them for a few dollars to someone who might need them.

But when you think about it, what types of USB-C cables are people going to save for themselves? It'll either be the cables that came with their devices or the newest cables they bought. Therefore, you're stuck with the leftovers — old, slow cables that may not even work properly. Even if you do manage to find someone selling good cables for cheap, you need to factor in the time it takes to drive to the seller. Last but not least, the few dollars you'll save will be eaten up by your gas tank.

Sites like Temu and AliExpress are better than the likes of Facebook Marketplace, but only just. Here, you'll find cables at prices that are too good to be true. But while the price tag may not be a joke, the wires themselves are.

While a six-pack of USB-C cables for around $6 sounds like a fantastic deal, you're giving up quality for quantity. First and foremost, you need to make sure you're not picking up a USB-A-to-USB-C cable. Given the way images and listings are presented on sites like Temu, it can be easy to miss important information amid the cluttered pages that show off how great a deal it is.

On top of that, these aren't name-brand wires, and you only have the seller's word that they are fast-charging and durable USB-C cables (look for a stated wattage, such as 60W or 100W, to confirm fast charging). Given the price, the likelihood that these wires will perform at the same level as Anker or Ugreen wires is very slim. In short, it's much better to pay more for one or two cables that you know will last than to take a gamble with AliExpress or Temu.

If you go to the dollar store for a USB-C cable, you'll most likely get the same quality cable as you would on Temu. Again, these prices are too good to be true, and any USB-C cable you get from places like Dollar Tree or Dollar General is likely to be slow-charging and poorly constructed.

What these dollar stores have over the likes of those online marketplaces, however, is immediacy and convenience. Buying a bad cable on AliExpress means you have to wait for the item to ship and arrive at your door; at least with a dollar-store purchase, you have it in hand right away. If you need a USB-C cable right away and there's no other brick-and-mortar option nearby to pick one up, you can get one here in a pinch.

But there is one more disadvantage to keep in mind here, and one that is shared with all the physical stores on this list. Stock will vary widely from store to store, and you might be stuck with a cable of even worse quality than you expect, or the store might be sold out entirely.

Walmart will have more options than the typical dollar-store fare, but that doesn't mean the selection is great. In-store selection varies by location, so even if you browse online, you may not have the best options available to you immediately. Often, these USB-C cables are on the cheap end, and while cheap cables do not always mean a lack of quality, this tends to be the case here.

Online, Walmart may have some brand names available, but some may be sold by third-party sellers, and it's not always easy to tell which are and which aren't.

The main advantage of Walmart is the same as that of a dollar store: convenience. If you need a cable right now, you can get one easily. If you have a store that's open late, it's even better. But what you gain in convenience, you lose in quality.

Target, another big-box retailer, is very similar to Walmart when it comes to USB-C cables. Most of the options won't be the best, and it's another case of stock varying wildly by location. If you need a cable quickly, you'll need to deal with whatever is available in the store you go into.

What puts Target just a bit above Walmart is the greater variety overall. For one, you can usually find Apple-branded accessories and cables in stores. Given that many people consider Apple-branded cables the best for their iPhones, that's a big advantage for anyone who needs a new cable fast.

But from there, the two stores offer very similar cable options. There will be some no-name brands, some of Target's own-brand cables (which are rarely good), and a smattering of better-known brands like Beats and Anker. However, you'll likely need to order the best cables online, which makes Target less appealing than a store like Best Buy.

Of all the brick-and-mortar options available, Best Buy is generally the best option to pick up a new USB-C cable. As a more tech-focused store, Best Buy has the widest variety of cables in stock and offers many higher-quality brands. While USB-C cables there are on the expensive side due to fewer deals than Amazon, the extra cost is worth it for the convenience of not having to sift through hundreds of listings.

The biggest disadvantage of buying from Best Buy is the same issue that affects all brick-and-mortar stores on this list — stock will vary widely from store to store, and the location closest to you may not have what you need. The vast majority of Best Buy stores will have Best Buy's own-brand cables in stock, and their quality will be better than the typical brands at Walmart, but quality can vary between models.

Also, Walmart and Target stores are far more plentiful than Best Buy stores. If there's not one immediately nearby, it might be difficult to justify the trip.

Whether Amazon is the best place for you to pick up a USB-C cable depends entirely on your knowledge of which brands are best and what to look out for. Amazon has, by far, the most extensive inventory of USB-C cables, and they're available in all sorts of speeds, lengths, and even colors.

But so many choices mean that there are a lot of bad wires to sift through. While more popular name brands may float to the top of the search results, there will still be no-name brands on the first page, and deal listings could be from any brand. There is also the risk of counterfeit cables, with third-party sellers or slightly misspelled brands popping up, making it difficult to know whether you're buying the real deal or an awful knockoff.

Finally, with literally thousands of options, it gets very overwhelming very quickly. How do you know if a cable supports fast charging? Are you accidentally buying a worse-quality cable? Do you want a braided cable, a silicone one, or something else entirely? Thankfully, there is a way to narrow things down a bit, but it will require stepping away from Amazon and going straight to the source.

The best way for nearly everyone to get a USB-C cable is to go directly to the source — that is, the store pages of well-known brands. If you order from Anker, Belkin, Ugreen, and so on, you'll have several advantages over other storefronts.

For one, the selection will be much more limited than with other options. Given that you're shopping with one particular brand, fewer options make it easier to research the ones that remain, making the process far less overwhelming. In addition, you know you're not risking counterfeit or shoddy-quality cables.

Generally, shipping from these sites will take longer than it would on Amazon, but the wait is worth it if you don't need the cable right away. Finally, if you happen to find a USB-C cable that works perfectly for your needs, you can probably find it again on the brand's official Amazon page, cutting down on both research and shipping time.

Most of our methodology for this article comes from personal experience. Over the years, we've all had to research and take chances with new USB-C cables, not knowing whether they'd be good or fall apart within a month or so. From that experience, we've learned which USB-C cable brands are the most trustworthy, and we then searched for them across various online and in-person storefronts.

From there, we looked into which USB-C cables were available at each store and how much information was provided about them. It's important to know the cable speeds, whether fast charging is available, and the materials the cables are made of to make informed decisions about what you're buying. If that information wasn't readily available for many of the cables at a particular store, that store ranked lower on the list.