Employee benefits - Target asset allocation (Details 4) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure
Target asset allocation (as a percent)	100.00%
Expected long-term return on global asset allocation (as a percent)	4.28%
Company's capital stock and debit instruments included in plan assets	$ 9	$ 15
Equity securities
Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure
Target asset allocation (as a percent)	25.00%
Fixed income
Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure
Target asset allocation (as a percent)	56.00%
Real estate
Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure
Target asset allocation (as a percent)	11.00%
Other
Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure
Target asset allocation (as a percent)	8.00%

Represents the value of the entity's shares (as well as an insignificant amount in 2011 of the entity's debt instruments) included in plan assets.

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	abb_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

This element represents the expected long-term rate of return based on the targeted global asset allocation.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Target allocation of investments of this type to total plan assets presented on a weighted average basis.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 715
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5
-Subparagraph (c)(i)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=58740216&loc=d3e2446-114920

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 715
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (d)(i)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=58740216&loc=d3e1928-114920

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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