Raspberry Pi Power over Ethernet (PoE)

PoE stands for Power over Ethernet, which is a way of passing data and power via a standard RJ45 Ethernet cable. It's really handy for removing the need for a wall socket where your Raspberry Pi is, giving you both wired internet and power in awkward locations via a single cable.

It's also a popular choice for those running multiple devices/Raspberry Pi, as it removes the need for lots of individual plug sockets and power supplies.

To use PoE to power your Raspberry Pi, you'll need a way to 'inject' power into your RJ45 cable (such as the Raspberry Pi PoE+ Injector), an Ethernet cable to run to your Raspberry Pi, then a sufficiently-rated PoE splitter or PoE HAT to 'split' the power and data back out at the other end.

Injectors and splitters offer varying power output and PoE standards such as 802.3at (PoE+) and 802.3af, so be sure to check what your Raspberry Pi model needs before buying any hardware.

Only the Raspberry Pi 3B+, Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 can accept PoE HATs as they have dedicated pins for this purpose (for other boards, use a splitter). The Raspberry Pi 5 needs a Pi 5-specific PoE HAT as the PoE pins are in a different position to the Pi 3B+ and 4.