Get the most life from your Pixel phone battery

You can help your phone’s battery last longer throughout the life of the phone by taking care of the battery and reducing battery drain.

Learn how to get the most life from your battery with our step-by-step tutorial.

Important: Some of these steps work only on Android 11 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

The Pixel battery continuously learns your behaviors and optimizes itself based on your most recent app usage. When you set up a new device or after a factory reset, optimization may take up a few weeks to take full effect. For best results keep Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization on.

Get the most from your battery life | Pixel

Choose settings that use less battery

Change screen display

Reduce screen brightness

Swipe down with two fingers from the top of your screen.
At the top of the screen, move the slider left.

Turn on Dark theme

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Display Dark theme.
Turn on Dark theme.

Turn off live wallpapers

To save some battery life, turn off live wallpapers. Learn how to change wallpapers.

Turn off your screen when you're not using it

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Display Lock screen.
Turn off your screen when you're not using it:
- Pixel 4: Tap Idle lock screen Off.
- All other Pixels: Turn off Always show time and info.

Let your screen turn off sooner

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Display Screen timeout.
Pick a time, such as 30 seconds.

Tip: If you have a Pixel 4, you can choose a short screen timer, and also have your screen stay on when you look at it. Open your phone’s Settings app and tap Display And then

Advanced And then

Screen attention, then turn on Screen attention.

Turn off Smooth Display (Pixel 4 & later, including Fold)

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap Display Smooth Display.
Turn off Smooth Display.

Have screen brightness change automatically

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Display Adaptive brightness.
Turn on Adaptive brightness.

Turn on Adaptive connectivity (Pixel 4a (5G) & later, including Fold)

Important: In the United States, some carriers may limit Adaptive connectivity. Contact your carrier for details.

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap Network & internet Adaptive connectivity.
Turn Adaptive connectivity on or off.

Learn more about Adaptive connectivity.

Reduce background battery drain

Turn off Motion Sense (Pixel 4 only)

To save battery, you can turn off your Pixel 4’s ability to sense what’s going on around it. Learn how to turn off Motion Sense.

Stop identifying songs

You can save battery by turning off Now Playing, which automatically recognizes songs playing near your phone. Learn how to turn off Now Playing.

Restrict apps that use more battery

Restrict apps with high background battery usage

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Battery.
If you find a message with advice to restrict an app or system, tap the message Restrict.

With high background or overall battery usage

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Battery Battery usage.
- To get battery usage by app, tap View by apps.
To review or change how a listed app or system uses the battery, tap the app or system.
- For all apps, it’s recommended you keep "battery optimization" turned on.
- For some apps, you can restrict background battery usage.
To review the "battery usage settings" for all your apps:
1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Apps App battery usage.
If you find a message with advice to restrict an app or system, tap the message Restrict.

Tip: When some apps are set to “Restricted,” they may not work as usual, or notifications are delayed.

Keep adaptive battery on

Keep adaptive battery on for your phone

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Battery Adaptive preferences.
Turn on Adaptive Battery.

Turn off high-drain features

Turn off tethering and hotspots when you’re not using them. Learn about tethering.
Set your Wi-Fi to not turn on automatically near saved networks. Learn about advanced Wi-Fi settings.

Learn more about what drains a battery most.

Delete unused accounts

Having fewer accounts on a phone can save battery. The phone's owner can delete accounts and user profiles.

Learn how to remove accounts.

Learn how to delete users.

Take care of your battery

Use the power adapter that came with your phone

Other power adapters and chargers can charge slowly or not at all. They can also damage your phone or battery.

Keep it cool

Avoid situations where your phone can overheat.

Your battery will drain much faster when it's hot, even if you're not using it. This kind of drain can damage your battery.

Learn why a phone can get warm and what to do about it.

Tip: Your phone warms up when it's plugged in, so don't keep it charging more than needed.

Charge as much or as little as needed

You don’t need to teach your phone how much capacity the battery has by going from full to zero charge or zero to full charge.

How to use Charging optimization

You can prolong your battery's lifespan with Charging optimization. By learning your charging habits, your phone minimizes the time it spends fully charged. You can also limit charging to 80%.

To turn on Charging optimization:

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap Battery Charging optimization.
Turn on Use charging optimization.
- If you want to charge your phone’s battery to only 80%, tap Limit to 80%.
- If you want to finish charging to 100% right before you normally unplug, tap Adaptive Charging.

How to use Adaptive Charging

Your Pixel can prolong the life of the battery by learning your charging habits and by fully charging before you need to use it. When you charge your phone for a long time or overnight, Adaptive Charging may turn on to charge to 100% one hour before you unplug.

This feature works on the following phones:

Pixel 4: Turns on when you charge your phone between 9 PM and 4 AM with an active alarm set for 3–10 AM. Learn how to set an alarm on your device.
Pixel 4a and later, including Fold: Adaptive Charging learns from your charging habits. If a long charging session is predicted, it may still turn on aside from the above mentioned condition.

Tips:

This feature needs about 14 days to learn your charging habits. If your charging habits vary, like when you travel, Adaptive Charging may not turn on.
When Adaptive Charging is turned on, a notification displays the time your battery will be fully charged.

To turn off Adaptive Charging:

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap Battery Charging optimization.
Turn off Use charging optimization.

Limit charging to 80%

To help extend the lifespan of your Pixel’s battery, you can limit charging of your phone to 80%. This feature is available on Pixel 6a and later devices.

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap Battery Charging optimization.
Turn on Charging optimization.
Tap Limit to 80%.

Tip: Your Pixel will occasionally charge to 100% to ensure accurate battery capacity readings.

Protecting your battery (Pixel 3 & later, including Fold)

Important: This feature is only available on Android 11 and later. Learn how to check your Android version.

To protect your battery health and help extend its lifespan, your phone automatically limits charging to about 70%-80% under certain conditions, such as:

Continuous charging for more than a few hours under high temperatures
Continuous charging for more than several days

When this feature is turned on, you will receive a notification that says “Protecting your battery.” A message that says “Charging optimized to protect your battery” is also displayed in the Settings app under Battery.

Tip: This feature is automatically deactivated when the phone no longer meets the conditions listed above. You know that the feature is no longer active when the phone starts to charge to 100%.

If you wish to override the battery protection feature and enable the phone to charge to 100%, tap on the ‘Charge to full’ link in the Settings app under “Battery” or restart your Pixel phone.

Tip: The next time your phone meets the above conditions, this feature will automatically activate again.