American wire gauge (AWG) is a standardized wire gauge system used in the United States and other countries. Increasing gauge numbers give decreasing wire diameters,which is similar to other non-metric gauging systems. This seemingly counterintuitive numbering is derived from the fact that the gauge number is related to the number of drawing operations that must be used to produce a given gauge of wire. Very fine wire (30 gauge for example) requires far more passes through the draw plate or die than does 16 gauge.

This is a close visual approximation of the various gauges of wire commonly used in beading.