The fastest ways to cut battery drain right now

Your iPhone battery drains fastest when the screen is on at full brightness, when apps run in the background, and when your phone searches for cellular or Wi-Fi signals. You can add hours to a single charge by turning off features you are not actively using, lowering screen brightness, and closing apps that consume power in the background.

The single biggest change most people notice is enabling Low Power Mode. Open Settings, tap Battery, and turn on Low Power Mode. Your phone will reduce performance slightly and limit background activity, but you will typically gain 1 to 3 extra hours per charge. You can also set it to turn on automatically when your battery reaches 20 percent.

Brightness is the second-largest drain. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then drag the brightness slider all the way down. If you find the screen too dim, enable Auto-Brightness instead: go to Settings, tap Accessibility, then Display & Text Size, and toggle on Auto-Brightness. Your phone will adjust brightness based on the light around you.

Key Takeaways

  • Low Power Mode reduces background activity and limits performance, typically adding 1 to 3 hours to your battery life per charge.
  • Lowering screen brightness or enabling Auto-Brightness cuts battery drain more than any other single setting change.
  • Turning off location services, background app refresh, and push notifications for apps you do not use constantly saves significant battery over the course of a day.
  • Keeping your iPhone between 20 and 80 percent charge during daily use and avoiding extreme temperatures helps preserve long-term battery health.
  • If your battery drains unusually fast even with these changes, check which apps are consuming the most power in Settings under Battery.

Turn off location services and background app refresh

Apps that track your location or refresh in the background drain battery even when you are not using them. Go to Settings, tap Privacy, then Location Services. You will see a list of every app that has asked for location access. Toggle off location for apps that do not need it—for example, a flashlight app or a game does not need to know where you are.

For background app refresh, go to Settings, tap General, then Background App Refresh. You will see every app that is allowed to update content when you are not looking at it. Turn this off for apps you check only occasionally, like email or news apps. Keep it on for messaging apps if you want to see notifications right away.

Location services and background refresh are convenient, but they run constantly. Turning them off for even half your apps will noticeably extend your battery life, especially if you are away from a charger for most of the day.

Disable push notifications and fetch mail less often

Every time your phone receives a notification, the screen wakes up and your phone connects to the network. If you have dozens of apps sending notifications, this happens dozens of times per hour. Go to Settings, tap Notifications, and review which apps are allowed to send you alerts. Turn off notifications for apps you do not need to hear from when ready.

Email is a particular drain because many phones are set to fetch new messages every few minutes. Go to Settings, tap Mail, then Accounts, then Fetch New Data. Change the fetch interval from "Every 15 Minutes" or "Every 30 Minutes" to "Hourly" or "Manually." If you use Mail for work, you can set work accounts to fetch more often while keeping personal accounts on a slower schedule.

You will still receive messages and notifications—they will just arrive a little less frequently. For most people, checking email once an hour instead of every 15 minutes makes almost no difference to their day but saves 10 to 15 percent of battery drain.

Check which apps are using the most power

Some apps are straightforward power-hungry. Go to Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Usage. You will see a list of apps ranked by how much battery they have used in the last 24 hours or the last 10 days. If one app is using 30 or 40 percent of your battery and you barely use it, that is your problem.

For apps you use frequently but that drain a lot of power, check their settings. Video streaming apps, maps, and games are the biggest culprits. In the app's settings, look for options to lower video quality, reduce animation, or limit background activity. For example, in YouTube, you can lower the default video quality from 1080p to 480p and save significant battery.

If an app drains power even when you are not using it, it may have a background process that is stuck or misconfigured. Try closing the app completely (swipe up from the bottom of the screen and swipe up on the app) and reopening it. If the drain continues, you can delete the app and reinstall it, or straightforward stop using it.

Adjust display settings and use dark mode

On newer iPhones with OLED screens (iPhone 12 and later), dark mode actually saves battery because black pixels use less power than white ones. Go to Settings, tap Display & Text Size, and toggle on Dark Appearance. This will make your entire phone use dark backgrounds, which is easier on your eyes and easier on your battery.

You can also reduce motion and animation, which drains battery on all models. Go to Settings, tap Accessibility, then Display & Text Size, and toggle on Reduce Motion. This will disable the parallax effect (where the background moves as you tilt your phone) and other animations that run in the background.

If you have an older iPhone, the screen brightness matters more than the color. Keeping brightness low is still your best option. On any iPhone, turning off the display entirely is the fastest way to stop battery drain—if you are not looking at the screen, lock your phone by pressing the side button or top button.

Keep your battery healthy over the long term

Battery health degrades over time, and how you charge your phone affects how fast that happens. Lithium batteries last longest when they stay between 20 and 80 percent charge. If you leave your phone plugged in overnight at 100 percent every night, the battery will degrade faster than if you unplug it at 80 percent.

Go to Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Health & Charging. You will see your battery's current health as a percentage—100 percent means the battery is new, and anything above 80 percent is still very good. If you see an option for Optimized Battery Charging, toggle it on. This will slow down charging to 80 percent and then wait to finish charging until you usually wake up, which reduces wear on the battery.

Extreme temperatures also damage batteries. Do not leave your iPhone in a hot car or in direct sunlight for long periods, and do not use it while it is very cold. If your phone gets too hot or too cold, it will slow down or shut off to protect the battery. Keeping your phone at room temperature extends its lifespan.

Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you are not using them

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both search for networks and devices constantly, even when you are not connected to anything. If you are in an area with weak Wi-Fi signals, your phone will search harder and drain battery faster. Go to Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner), and tap the Wi-Fi icon to turn it off. Do the same for Bluetooth.

You do not need to turn these off all day—just when you know you will not be using them. For example, if you are commuting and will not need Wi-Fi for an hour, turn it off. If you are not using wireless headphones or a smartwatch, turn off Bluetooth. This is a small change, but it adds up over the course of a day.

If you want these to turn off automatically, you can use Focus modes. Go to Settings, tap Focus, create a new Focus (like "Commute"), and set it to turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Then set that Focus to turn on automatically at certain times or locations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does closing apps in the background actually save battery?

Closing apps manually does almost nothing. iOS is designed to pause apps automatically when you are not using them. The only time closing an app helps is if it is stuck and running constantly—you will see this in Battery Usage as an app using power even when you have not opened it in hours. In that case, close the app and reopen it.

Will turning off 5G save a lot of battery?

5G uses more power than 4G LTE, but the difference is usually small unless you are actively downloading large files. If you are on a weak 5G signal, your phone will drain battery faster searching for the network. Go to Settings, tap Cellular, then Cellular Data Options, and toggle off 5G if you want to save battery. You will still have fast internet on 4G LTE.

Is it bad to use Low Power Mode all the time?

Low Power Mode limits performance and some features, but it is not harmful to your phone. Many people use it constantly and never turn it off. The trade-off is that apps will open slightly slower and some background tasks will not run. If you do not mind that, you can leave it on permanently.

Why does my battery drain so fast even after trying these changes?

Check Battery Usage in Settings to see which apps are consuming the most power. If one app is using 50 percent or more of your battery, that app is the problem—try closing it, updating it, or deleting it. If battery drains evenly across many apps, your battery health may be degraded. Go to Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Health & Charging to see the percentage. If it is below 80 percent, your battery is aging and may need replacement.

Does charging my phone overnight damage the battery?

Modern iPhones are designed to handle overnight charging, but it does cause slow degradation over years. If you want to minimize wear, unplug your phone when it reaches 80 percent, or enable Optimized Battery Charging in Settings under Battery Health & Charging. This will automatically slow charging to 80 percent and finish the last 20 percent in the morning.