How to Read Motor Bench Tables

Motor pages on this site carry the manufacturer's full bench test data - the tables makers publish only as images buried in product pages. Here is how to actually use those numbers instead of skimming to "max thrust".

What one row means

1950KV · T5147-3 · 6S · 100% · 49.3 A · 31,401 RPM · 1990 g · 1.64 g/W

One motor, on one prop, at one throttle point: it pulled 49.3 A and made 1990 g of thrust. Nothing more - no frame, no airflow, no battery sag beyond the bench supply. Bench numbers are comparable, not achievable: in the air you'll see less. Their value is that every motor tested the same way can be compared fairly.

The three numbers worth extracting

1. Max thrust → your thrust-to-weight. Multiply max thrust by motor count, divide by all-up weight. Freestyle wants 8:1+, cruising is happy at 4:1. Every motor page pre-fills its bench max into the thrust-to-weight calculator so this is one input away.

2. Current at 100% → your ESC and battery floor. Four motors at 49.3 A means ~197 A of burst demand. That number sizes the ESC (stacks explained) and exposes optimistic battery labels (C-rating truth). Sanity-check the pack with the current draw calculator.

3. Efficiency at PARTIAL throttle → your flight time. You cruise at 30-60% throttle, not 100%. Compare g/W in the mid rows: the motor that wins at full throttle often loses at cruise. Long-range pilots should sort by the mid-throttle g/W column, not the thrust column. Feed the result into the flight time calculator.

Reading across props

The same motor tested on two props is a prop comparison under lab conditions - notice how a higher-pitch prop buys top-end thrust at the cost of current and mid-range efficiency (prop pitch basics). If the manufacturer bench-tested a prop, that pairing is what the motor was designed around; it's the best starting point for your own build.

Reading across KV

Higher KV rows show more RPM, more current, more thrust, less efficiency - on the same voltage. The table makes the KV trade-off concrete: pick the KV row matching your battery, not the biggest number on the page.

Test formats you'll see here

Throttle sweep (T-Motor style): rows at 20-100% throttle.
Load points (EMAX payload style): rows at fixed thrust steps (300/500/700 g) plus max - the mid rows directly show cruise efficiency.

Both answer the same questions; the sweep shows response shape, the load points show efficiency at realistic hover weights.

Browse motors with bench data in the motors hub - entries with a thrust table show it below the spec sheet, with the source linked.