Tool

Controller ID lookup

Every USB controller reports two numbers, a vendor ID and a product ID, and those numbers are how software knows which controller it is talking to. Connect yours and press a button, and this page reads the ID and finds it in a list of 222 controllers. Or search the list by name or by ID. The ID is read in your browser and is not sent anywhere.

What the list is

The names and IDs come from the Mac entries of SDL_GameControllerDB, a community project under the zlib license that records which numbered button on each controller is A, B, X, Y, a shoulder or a stick. This copy holds 323 entries for 222 controllers and was taken on September 28, 2026. InputConfig, the free Mac app I make, carries this list inside it.

• One controller, several entries. A model can have an entry per firmware version or per connection, which is why some rows show more than one ID.
• One ID, several controllers. Many low-cost pads share a chip and its USB ID, so a single ID can sit under more than one name.
• How InputConfig uses it. When it reads a pad directly, it uses an entry only if it matches the pad exactly, or if every entry for that ID agrees.

An entry tells an app which button is which, so A is A and the left stick is the left stick.

What being in the list means on a Mac

• Controllers macOS supports itself. PlayStation, Xbox and Switch controllers are in the list, and a Mac also reads them with no help. Games with controller support see them. The full rundown is on which controllers work with a Mac.
• Plain USB and Bluetooth pads. Most of the list. Games built on Apple's controller support ignore them, and an app that reads them directly, as InputConfig does, can name their buttons from the entry and turn them into keys and mouse.
• Xbox 360 type pads. They are in the list, and macOS still cannot read the wired Xbox 360 protocol. See an Xbox 360 controller on a Mac.

The list says the layout is known; the connection decides whether the Mac can read the controller at all.

Find a controller's ID yourself

1. Connect the controller. By cable, or paired over Bluetooth.
2. Open System Information. Hold Option, open the Apple menu, and choose System Information.
3. Select the controller. Click USB in the sidebar, or Bluetooth for a wireless pad, and click the controller's name.
4. Read the two numbers. Vendor ID and Product ID are listed there, each written like 0x054c. Drop the 0x and type the rest into the search box above.

If System Information does not list the controller, the cable or the port is the problem, not the list.

If your controller is not in the list

It can still work. A pad with no entry describes its own buttons and axes to the computer, and InputConfig reads that description, labeling the buttons Button 1, Button 2 and so on. Press Scan on a row and press the button you want, and the number never matters. The gamepad tester shows what a browser receives from it, and generic USB gamepad not working covers the common faults. Not in the list means unnamed buttons, not an unusable controller.

Questions

Related

• Gamepad tester
• What controllers work with a Mac
• Generic USB gamepad not working on a Mac
• Controller not recognized or not working on a Mac
• Other controllers
• Controller button names and map

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.