Short answer: No. DeWalt, Milwaukee, Craftsman, Ryobi, Makita, RIDGID and Kobalt batteries are not interchangeable with each other. Every one of these brands states that its batteries work with its own tools — none of them state compatibility with a competitor’s tools, and each platform uses its own battery shape, electrical contacts and charger design. If you own tools from more than one of these brands, you need a separate battery/charger set for each brand, unless you’re deliberately using an unofficial third-party adapter.
Search “are [brand] and [brand] batteries interchangeable” and you’ll find dozens of specific pairings. The answer is almost always the same, for the same underlying reason. Rather than write that answer ten separate times, this page covers the general rule once, then runs through the specific pairs people actually search for.
Why doesn’t any brand support cross-brand batteries?
Every brand reviewed for this page describes its battery platform the same way: compatible with its own tool lineup, full stop. Milwaukee says all M18 batteries work with M18 tools and chargers; DeWalt says FlexVolt batteries work with DeWalt 20V MAX tools; Craftsman says V20 batteries work with the Craftsman V20 lineup; Ryobi says its batteries work across the ONE+ platform; Makita and RIDGID make the equivalent claim for their own systems. None of these pages mention a competitor’s tools at all.
Editorial note: no brand publishes a statement saying “not compatible with Brand X” — manufacturers simply don’t talk about each other. The “not interchangeable” answer on this page comes from combining each brand’s own compatibility scope with the fact that no official source anywhere claims cross-brand compatibility, not from a direct competitor callout.
Specific brand pairs people search for
| Pairing | Interchangeable? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| DeWalt ↔ Milwaukee | No | Separate battery platforms — see the DeWalt 20V MAX/FlexVolt and Milwaukee M12 vs M18 guides on this site. |
| DeWalt ↔ Craftsman | No | Both market “20V”-class tools, but the connector and electronics differ — same-sounding voltage does not mean same battery. |
| DeWalt ↔ Ryobi | No | Different platforms, no official cross-compatibility statement from either brand. |
| DeWalt ↔ Makita | No | Different platforms, no official cross-compatibility statement from either brand. |
| DeWalt ↔ Black+Decker | No | Same parent company (Stanley Black & Decker), but that doesn’t mean shared battery hardware — see below. |
| Milwaukee ↔ Craftsman | No | Different platforms, no official cross-compatibility statement from either brand. |
| Ryobi ↔ RIDGID | No | Different platforms, no official cross-compatibility statement from either brand, despite both being sold at Home Depot. |
| Kobalt ↔ anything else | No | Kobalt (Lowe’s house brand) states its batteries work with “the entire line of KOBALT 24V Max tools” — no other brand mentioned. |
What about DeWalt and Black+Decker specifically?
DeWalt and Black+Decker are both owned by the same parent company, Stanley Black & Decker — a fact that leads a lot of people to assume the batteries must be interchangeable too. Neither brand’s own product pages state that their batteries cross over. Common ownership explains why the two brands sometimes share design language or retail shelf space; it doesn’t mean they share a battery platform. Treat them as two separate systems, the same as any other unrelated pair on this page.
Which platforms have the biggest tool selection?
If you’re choosing a platform from scratch, official tool-count claims give a rough sense of ecosystem size (these numbers describe each platform’s own tool range, not cross-compatibility):
- Ryobi ONE+ (18V): “over 300+ compatible products,” and Ryobi describes the platform as “compatible across products from the last 3 decades.”
- Makita 18V/36V LXT: “over 350+ cordless products.”
- Craftsman V20: “over 100 different products.”
- RIDGID 18V: “over 30” tools cited on the page reviewed, “compatible with any generation of RIDGID 18-volt batteries” (RIDGID’s own site blocked direct verification for this guide; figure taken from a search-indexed excerpt, not a direct fetch).
DeWalt and Milwaukee don’t publish a single headline tool-count figure on the pages reviewed for this guide or for the dedicated DeWalt and Milwaukee guides on this site — both are widely understood to be among the largest professional platforms, but that’s not the same as an official published number, so none is stated here.
Do adapters exist to bridge brands?
Yes — third-party adapters that let one brand’s battery physically connect to another brand’s tool are sold independently of any of these manufacturers. None of the brands reviewed for this page officially endorses using their batteries or tools with a competitor’s equipment via an adapter. This guide doesn’t take a position on whether specific adapters are safe or unsafe — only that they’re not officially sanctioned by any brand covered here.
How this was checked
Each brand’s claim above comes from that brand’s own current product or system page. Milwaukee and DeWalt facts are shared with the dedicated guides on this site for those platforms. RIDGID and Kobalt sources returned an access error when fetched directly for this review; those two brands’ facts are drawn from search-engine-indexed excerpts of the official pages rather than a direct fetch, and are flagged as such rather than presented with the same confidence as the directly-verified brands.
Sources checked: 2026-08-05. A new review date will only be set after the linked pages are re-checked.