@samhenrigold if you connect a USB 3 device to a macOS computer using the cable then the USB section in the system information app will tell you the max speed for that device, which you can infer the USB type

for USB-C: plug that cable into a mac and a device that is known to support USB 3, then open "system profiler" -> USB and look for the connection speed
for USB-A: look into the plug to see if there are additional pins deep inside it

@samhenrigold e.g if you connect a USB 3 device using a shit USB 2 cable then it’ll say the max speed is 480mbps

@samhenrigold another quick way for checking USB C cables is to look at the inside of the connector and check how many pins are actually present.
almost all my charging-only cables do not have the differential pins present, and some don't even provide the same amount of pins on both sides.

@samhenrigold I saw a recent YouTuber mention this hardware device "C2C CABERQU" which seems to do what you want? I have not tried it yet, but he was using it in the video I watched to identify USB-C cable speeds.

https://caberqu.com/home/20-c2c-caberqu-746052578813.html

Here is the YouTube video I referenced, the guy mentions/shows it briefly at 6:07: https://youtu.be/XuofqeRbBfY?si=o_1nRB2hpg9Sr-Nk&t=367