Here's What The USB Port On Your Computer Monitor Is For

The first USB port hit the market in 1996, and the Universal Serial Bus quickly became the go-to port for connecting peripheral devices to computers. It remains a popular connection port today, with phones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers, and a whole range of electronics featuring some form of USB connection.

If you have an external monitor set up with your laptop or desktop computer, it's possible that monitor will give you access to more functionality than extra screen real estate. Your computer monitor likely has one, if not several, USB ports on the back. This makes it, essentially, a USB hub, and similarly to the way a router's USB port allows for additional connectivity, the USB ports on your computer monitor can be put to use in a number of ways.

Among other things, your monitor's USB port can allow for the expansion of hard drive space, the ability to print, the transmission of video, and even the capacity to charge electronics. Different USB types provide different possibilities, however, so it's important to distinguish between USB ports and their potential uses.

USB-A ports are probably going to be the most easily distinguished USB port on your monitor. These are the rectangular USB ports, and for decades they served as the primary way to connect keyboards, mice, printers, external disk drives, and other smaller accessories to computers. While many of these devices now come with Bluetooth and wireless connectivity onboard, peripheral equipment such as hard drives and other external storage solutions still require a USB connection for power.

Power delivery, in fact, is one of the most beneficial uses of your monitor's USB-A ports. USB-A ports support charging at standard USB power levels, which makes them ideal for keeping phones, tablets, wireless earbuds, and other small devices charged up. These devices may have different kinds of charging ports built-in, but if you tend to drain your devices throughout the day, using your monitor's USB-A ports to charge them is just a matter of tracking down the correct cable.

If your monitor has a USB-B port, it's meant to serve as the upstream connection for the monitor's USB hub. This is the port you'll connect directly to your computer, ensuring all of the USB-A devices you've connected to the monitor can send data to it. The USB-B port isn't able to power devices, but the USB-A ports on your monitor won't fully work without it.

USB-C is the most versatile of the USB ports, and if your monitor has one of these, it can really simplify your workspace setup. Unlike USB-A and USB-B ports, the USB-C connection is reversible, and it can eliminate the frustrations of getting the cable orientation right when plugging in devices. Those devices can also be much larger and more power hungry, as USB-C supports the transmission of power, data, video, and audio, all through a single cable.

When connecting a laptop to your monitor's USB-C port, the monitor can charge the laptop, and simultaneously, the laptop can send a high resolution video signal to the monitor. This kind of capacity is why USB-C ports are often used to connect multiple 4K monitors to laptops and desktop computers. Such capacity also allows for the speedy transfer of large amounts of data, making USB-C preferable when connecting storage devices meant for speed like solid state drives.

High-end monitors can feature more than one USB-C port, and may do so alongside a shortage of USB-A ports. The Apple Studio Display, for example, doesn't have any USB-A ports at all. If you happen to find yourself in a situation like this, you can get those USB-A devices connected again with an adapter or a USB-C to USB-A cable, or you can simply use the additional USB-C ports to add some new USB-C gadgets to your workspace.