Raspberry Pi Pico W

RP2040-based microcontroller board with onboard 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, built for connected 3.3V projects.

What is the Raspberry Pi Pico W?

The Raspberry Pi Pico W is a low-cost microcontroller board built around Raspberry Pi's RP2040 chip, a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ running at up to 133 MHz with 264 KB of on-chip SRAM and 2 MB of external QSPI flash. It keeps the same 40-pin form factor and pinout as the original Pico while adding wireless connectivity.

Wireless is provided by an Infineon CYW43439 module linked to the RP2040 over SPI. It supports 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 (both Classic and LE, enabled through firmware), using an on-board antenna licensed from ABRACON (formerly ProAnt). One quirk to know: the board's user LED is wired to the CYW43439's WL_GPIO0 line rather than to an RP2040 pin, so the wireless driver must be initialized to blink it.

The board exposes 26 multifunction GPIO at 3.3V logic, with 3 analog inputs (12-bit ADC), 16 PWM channels, and 2 each of SPI, I2C, and UART, plus the RP2040's Programmable I/O (PIO) blocks for custom interfaces. Makers program it in C/C++ with the Pico SDK or in MicroPython, and it is powered and flashed over its micro-USB connector, which makes it a popular choice for Wi-Fi sensors, web-controlled hardware, and battery-powered IoT nodes.

Raspberry Pi Pico W pin reference

Pin	Function	Type
`GP0` GP0	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 RX · UART UART0 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP1` GP1	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 CSn · UART UART0 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_3` GND	Power	Power in
`GP2` GP2	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 SCK · UART UART0 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP3` GP3	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 TX · UART UART0 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP4` GP4	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 RX · UART UART1 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP5` GP5	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 CSn · UART UART1 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_8` GND	Power	Power in
`GP6` GP6	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 SCK · UART UART1 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP7` GP7	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 TX · UART UART1 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP8` GP8	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 RX · UART UART1 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP9` GP9	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 CSn · UART UART1 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_13` GND	Power	Power in
`GP10` GP10	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 SCK · UART UART1 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP11` GP11	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 TX · UART UART1 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP12` GP12	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 RX · UART UART0 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP13` GP13	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 CSn · UART UART0 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_18` GND	Power	Power in
`GP14` GP14	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 SCK · UART UART0 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP15` GP15	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 TX · UART UART0 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`VBUS` VBUS	Power	Power in
`VSYS` VSYS	Power	Power in
`GND_38` GND	Power	Power in
`3V3_EN` 3V3_EN	Digital	Digital input
`3V3` 3V3	Power	Power out
`ADC_VREF` ADC_VREF	Analog ADC reference	Digital input
`GP28` GP28 / ADC2	Analog ADC2 · Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 RX · UART UART0 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_33` GND / AGND	Power	Power in
`GP27` GP27 / ADC1	Analog ADC1 · Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 TX · UART UART1 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP26` GP26 / ADC0	Analog ADC0 · Digital · PWM · SPI SPI1 SCK · UART UART1 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`RUN` RUN	Digital	Digital input
`GP22` GP22	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 SCK · UART UART1 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_28` GND	Power	Power in
`GP21` GP21	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 CSn · UART UART1 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP20` GP20	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 RX · UART UART1 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP19` GP19	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 TX · UART UART0 RTS · I²C I2C1 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP18` GP18	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 SCK · UART UART0 CTS · I²C I2C1 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GND_23` GND	Power	Power in
`GP17` GP17	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 CSn · UART UART0 RX · I²C I2C0 SCL	Bidirectional (GPIO)
`GP16` GP16	Digital · PWM · SPI SPI0 RX · UART UART0 TX · I²C I2C0 SDA	Bidirectional (GPIO)

Specifications

Operating voltage: 3.3 V
Interface: gpio
Clock speed: 133 MHz
Flash: 2 MB
RAM: 264 KB
GPIO pins: 26
ADC: 3 channels · 12-bit
PWM channels: 16
Dimensions: 51 × 21 × 8.5 mm

Verified from the Tinkered component library · Raspberry Pi.

Circuit requirements

GPIO run at 3.3V logic and are NOT 5V tolerant; feeding 5V into any GP pin can permanently damage the chip. Level-shift 5V signals down to 3.3V.
Power the board over micro-USB (5V lands on the VBUS pin), or supply VSYS directly from a 1.8-5.5V source such as a battery for standalone use.
VBUS and VSYS are separated by an onboard Schottky diode; a common battery hookup feeds the cell into VSYS through its own diode so USB and battery can coexist without back-powering.
The 3V3 pin is a regulated 3.3V output for powering sensors and peripherals; do not drive external voltage into it. Pull 3V3_EN low to disable the onboard regulator and shut the board down.
The onboard LED is on the CYW43439's WL_GPIO0, not on an RP2040 GPIO, so the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth driver must be brought up before the LED can be toggled.
Pull the RUN pin low to reset the RP2040; hold BOOTSEL while connecting USB to mount the board as a drive for firmware flashing.

Common Raspberry Pi Pico W mistakes

Blinking the LED like it is a plain Pico

On the original Pico the onboard LED is GP25, but on the Pico W that pin is used by the wireless chip and the LED moved to the CYW43439's WL_GPIO0. Code that toggles GP25 does nothing; you must initialize the wireless driver and use the cyw43 'LED' pin instead.

Assuming the GPIO are 5V tolerant

The RP2040 runs at 3.3V logic and its pins are not 5V tolerant. Wiring a 5V sensor output, another 5V board, or a 5V I2C bus straight to a GP pin can damage it. Use a level shifter or voltage divider.

Trying to use the wireless chip's shared pins

GPIO used to interface the CYW43439 (and VSYS voltage sensing) are consumed internally on the Pico W and are not free general-purpose pins on the header. Do not plan a design that reuses them for your own signals.

Skipping the Wi-Fi country/region setting

In MicroPython, failing to set the wireless country (for example rp2.country('US')) or leaving default region settings can cause the board to fail to connect or scan properly. Configure the region before joining a network.

Back-powering through VBUS while on USB

Injecting external 5V into VBUS while the board is also plugged into a computer's USB can create conflicting supplies. For battery or external power, feed VSYS through a diode rather than driving VBUS.

Raspberry Pi Pico W datasheet

Official Raspberry Pi Pico W datasheetRaspberry Pi

Popular Raspberry Pi Pico W projects

Wi-Fi environmental sensor

Read a temperature, humidity, or air-quality sensor over I2C and push readings to a cloud dashboard or MQTT broker over the onboard Wi-Fi.

Browser-controlled GPIO web server

Run a small MicroPython or C web server on the Pico W so a phone or laptop can switch relays, LEDs, or motors from a web page on the local network.

MQTT home-automation node

Publish sensor data and subscribe to commands over MQTT to tie the board into Home Assistant or another smart-home hub.

Bluetooth LE beacon or peripheral

Use the CYW43439's Bluetooth 5.2 LE support to broadcast sensor values or act as a BLE peripheral for a phone app.

NTP internet clock and display

Sync time from an NTP server over Wi-Fi and show it on an OLED or LED matrix, with no external RTC required.

IoT data logger to a cloud service

Sample analog inputs on the 12-bit ADC and stream them to a service like Adafruit IO or ThingSpeak for remote graphing and alerts.

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