Apparatuses, systems, and methods are presented for error correction based on physical characteristics for memory. A controller may be configured to read a set of encoded bits from a set of cells of a memory array. The controller may be configured to divide the encoded bits into reliability groups based on one or more persistent physical characteristics associated with cells of the set of cells. The controller may be configured to provide reliability estimates based on the reliability groups to a soft decision decoder for decoding the encoded bits.