Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based methods are gaining popularity in different fields like cognition and brain–computer interface (BCI) studies. The SSVEP is used in BCI due to less training time, more accuracy, and high information transfer rate. The properties of SSVEP depend on factors like shape, size, frequency, and color of the stimuli. In this work, the white/black square stimuli are studied from Oz, O1, O2, Pz, P1, and P2 channels to analyze the power and energy at four different frequencies. The Psychophysics Toolbox in MATLAB is used to design the stimuli. The average power and average energy from white/black square stimuli of different channels help in frequency selection of visual stimuli at different channels. Further, signals with high energy may be effective in BCI. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.