Look for recent completed sessions, not “available” status. A station that shows charging activity within the last few hours almost certainly works. A station that merely shows “available” has only proven it can answer a network ping — it can still fail the payment handshake, die mid-session, or deliver a fraction of its rated power.
The signals, ranked by how much they actually tell you
Recent session activity (best). PlugShare check-ins from today, a network app showing stalls cycling between available and in-use over the day, or a “last used” timestamp. Stalls that are being used are being verified by other drivers continuously.
Driver check-ins with detail. A check-in that says “charged at 145 kW, no issues” from this week beats any status icon. Recent photos are even better — they confirm the site matches its listing.
Live stall counts that change. If the app’s available-stall number moves while you watch, the site’s telemetry is real and current. A count frozen at the same number for days is a red flag, not a reassurance.
“Available” status alone (weakest). This is the signal most drivers rely on, and it is the one that produces the “always broken” experience. Networks count a stall as up if it responds — including stalls that power on but cannot complete a session. The gap between claimed and delivered is measured, network by network, in our comparison table.
Stack the odds before you rely on one site
Prefer sites with four or more stalls — redundancy is the strongest predictor of a successful visit in our data, because one dead stall at a big site is an inconvenience rather than a failed trip. Be suspicious of the three chronically-failing station classes: older Level 2 units, single-stall sites, and hammered high-traffic urban fast chargers (why these fail constantly). And if you arrive and it is dead anyway, run the 10-minute protocol before giving up on the site.
Which apps surface these signals best — and which just show you a map of plugs — is covered in our charging apps guide.