ESP32-CAM (AI-Thinker)
Also known as: ESP32-CAM · AI-Thinker ESP32-CAM
By far the cheapest ESP32 camera board, used for streaming, surveillance, time-lapse and ESPHome cameras.
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At a glance
⚑ flag an error| SoC | ESP32 |
|---|---|
| Vendor | AI-Thinker |
| Type | Camera |
| Memory | 4 MB flash · 4 MB PSRAM |
| Display | None |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth |
| USB | none (needs an external USB-to-serial adapter) |
| Battery | No |
| Typical price | $6-9 (street, varies) |
Good for
Gotchas to know
- No onboard USB: you must flash it with an external FTDI/USB-TTL adapter (or the ESP32-CAM-MB board).
- Only ~10 usable GPIO; GPIO16 is PSRAM, GPIO4 is the flash LED, several pins are used by the microSD slot.
- Power from 5 V; brownouts on 3.3 V are common.
Variants
Sold with or without the ESP32-CAM-MB USB programmer; OV2640 (and OV5640) camera options.
The ESP32 inside
This board is built on the ESP32 (ESP32 (classic)). See the SoC page for the full peripheral, GPIO and security details.
Bare modules on the same SoC:
Resources
Community guides usually go deeper than this page: pinout diagrams, wiring, library setup and copy-paste example code from people who build with these boards daily.