Bipolar electromagnets are designed to meet a wide range of manual or automated application requirements. It has widely spaced poles with a continuous magnetic field for the full length of the magnet face.

The bipolar stepper motor usually has four wires coming out of it. Unlike unipolar steppers, bipolar steppers have no common center connection. There are only two coils, and current must be sent through a coil first in one direction and then in the other direction; thus the name bipolar. Bipolar motors need more than 4 transistors to operate them, but they are also more powerful than a unipolar motor of the same weight. To be able to send current in both directions, engineers can use an H-bridge to control each coil or a step motor driver chip.