NOCO GB50 vs GB40: Which Jump Starter Actually Fits the Car (2026)

NOCO GB50 vs GB40 comes down to fifty dollars, five hundred amps and three tenths of a pound. The GB50 starts a bigger engine and holds more charge; the GB40 is cheaper and slightly lighter. For most cars in most driveways the GB40 is enough, and the GB50 is the one to buy when the engine is large, the winters are cold, or nobody is going to remember to recharge it.

The short version. NOCO lists the GB40 at 1000 amps and $99.95, good for gas engines up to 6.0L and up to 20 jump starts on a charge. The GB50 is 1500 amps at $149.95, up to 7.0L gas and up to 30 jump starts. The step up costs fifty dollars and adds three tenths of a pound. The step after that, to the GB70, adds another fifty dollars and more than two pounds.

What the NOCO GB50 is

A portable lithium jump starter: a battery pack with clamps that starts a car without a second vehicle, a set of cables, or another person. That last part is the whole point of the category. A dead battery used to require flagging someone down.

NOCO lists the GB50 at 1500 amps on its product page, rated for gas engines to 7.0L and diesel to 4.5L, with up to 30 jump starts on a single charge. It also works as a USB power bank and carries a built-in light, which matters more than it sounds when the battery dies after dark.

NOCO GB40 or GB50: what the extra fifty dollars buys

Both units do the same job by the same method. The difference is capacity, and NOCO publishes all of it:

Read down the last two rows rather than the first. Between the GB40 and the GB50, fifty dollars buys 500 amps, one more liter of gas engine, one and a half more liters of diesel, ten more jump starts, and costs three tenths of a pound. That is an unusually cheap upgrade in the currency that matters once the thing lives in a trunk.

Which one matches the engine

The engine size in the table is the number to check first, and it is printed on the car.

A GB40 covers most passenger cars. Four-cylinder and most six-cylinder sedans, compact SUVs, and small crossovers sit well inside 6.0L gas.

A GB50 covers what the GB40 does not. Full-size trucks and SUVs, older V8s, and diesel engines between 3.0L and 4.5L. If the vehicle is a pickup or a large SUV, this is the floor rather than the upgrade.

Cold changes the answer. A battery delivers less current in winter and an engine turns over harder, so a unit rated close to the engine's limit has less in reserve on the morning it is actually needed. Buying one size up is a reasonable response to a cold climate even when the engine is small, and the rest of what a cold month asks of an older adult is in winter safety for seniors.

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• The GB40: current listing, the 1000-amp model described above.
• The GB50: current listing, the 1500-amp model.

We do not test these and we are not ranking them. Everything above comes from NOCO's own published specifications, which is what anyone can check.

NOCO GB50 vs GB70: why we stop here

The obvious move after reading the table is to keep going up. The GB70 adds another 500 amps, another liter of gas engine, and ten more jump starts, for another fifty dollars. On the first five rows it looks like the same trade again.

It is not the same trade. The GB50 weighs 2.7 pounds and the GB70 weighs 5.0 pounds. The same 500 amps that cost three tenths of a pound on the way up from the GB40 cost two and a third pounds on the way up from the GB50.

That is why the GB50 is where this comparison stops. It is the last step before the device stops being something you forget is in the trunk and becomes something you notice every time you move it. For a vehicle that genuinely needs 8.0L of starting power the GB70 is the right answer and the weight is the price of it. For everything else, the GB50 is the ceiling rather than the middle.

Who is going to use it

This is the question the spec sheets skip, and it changes the answer more than engine size does.

If the person who will actually use this is an older driver, the useful comparison is not amps against amps. It is whether they can lift it out of the trunk with one hand, whether the clamps take a grip they still have, and whether they can read the indicator in the dark. Those are not questions a table answers, and they are worth testing in the driveway on a calm afternoon rather than discovering at the roadside.

The ordinary case for a device like this is also not the dramatic one. A parent who still drives is usually still looking after the car, and that is a piece of independence worth keeping rather than quietly managing away. When that stops being true the question changes entirely, and when to stop driving is about the conversation rather than the equipment. Age changes what a dead battery costs rather than how often it happens: waiting alone on a shoulder, or flagging down a stranger, at an hour when neither is a small thing. A self-contained starter removes the part that got worse.

None of that makes either model a medical device or a substitute for a road service membership. It makes it one fewer situation that requires somebody else to turn up.

What neither one does

Both are jump starters, not chargers. They deliver a burst of current to crank an engine that has a weak battery; they do not restore a battery that has failed, and they do not fix an alternator that is not charging it. A car that needs a jump twice in a week needs a battery test, not a bigger starter.

They also need charging themselves. A unit that has sat in a hot trunk for two years may not have the charge it needs on the morning it is finally required, which is the argument for the model with more jump starts in it even when the engine is small.

Neither model includes an air compressor. NOCO's Boost Air AX65 combines a starter with one at $299.95 on their site, which is a different product for a different problem, and we have not covered it here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the NOCO GB50 worth it over the GB40? If the vehicle is a full-size truck or SUV, an older V8, or a diesel over 3.0L, the GB50 is not an upgrade but the correct size. If it is an ordinary sedan or a compact SUV, the GB40 covers it, and the fifty dollars buys reserve rather than capability you need.

NOCO GB40 vs GB50 size: how much bigger is it? Very little. NOCO lists the GB40 at 2.4 pounds and the GB50 at 2.7 pounds. The meaningful size jump in this range is the next one, to the GB70 at 5.0 pounds.

How many times can a NOCO GB50 jump a car? NOCO lists up to 30 jump starts on a single charge, against up to 20 for the GB40 and up to 40 for the GB70. That figure matters most for a unit that will be recharged rarely.

Will a GB40 start a diesel? Up to 3.0L, per NOCO's rating. The GB50 is rated to 4.5L and the GB70 to 6.0L.

Do these work in cold weather? They are used in cold weather, which is when most people need them, but cold reduces what any battery can deliver. That is the argument for choosing a model rated above the engine rather than exactly at it in a cold climate.

Sources

• NOCO, GB40 Boost Plus product page.
• NOCO, GB50 Boost XL product page.
• NOCO, GB70 Boost HD product page.
• NOCO, Boost Air AX65 product page.