How to Save Battery on Your Chromebook & Stay Productive

Written by Kyle Smith

Last Updated: October 25, 2022

Trying to get your Chromebook battery to last as long as possible? We compiled 11 easy power-saving tips to extend your battery life and get the most out of your laptop. This wikiHow article will go over how to save battery on your Chromebook by lowering the brightness, closing applications, deactivating extensions, and more!

Things You Should Know

Lower the keyboard backlight and screen brightness to save battery.
Check task manager to find applications that are using a lot of resources and draining energy.
Turn off your Chromebook when you’re not going to use it for a while. Leaving it in sleep mode will slowly use battery power.

1

Lower keyboard backlight

Lowering the keyboard backlight will decrease its energy usage. Turning the lights off completely will save the most power.
- Press the keyboard backlight key that decreases the brightness. This key usually has three horizontal lines under three radiating lines.^{[1]
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- You might need to press Alt + Brightness Down if your Chromebook doesn’t have dedicated keyboard backlight keys.
- You can always turn the backlight back on if needed.

2

Lower screen brightness

Lowering the screen brightness is an easy way to make a charge last longer. This is a good option if you’re in a darker room with little glare.
- Press the screen brightness decrease key. This key may look like a star or multiple lines radiating out of a central point.

3

Disconnect accessories

If you’re not using accessories plugged into your Chromebook, disconnect them to save battery. Accessories like a mouse, keyboard, USB drive, and headphones draw some energy from your laptop while plugged in.

4

Turn off Bluetooth

Turning off Bluetooth can preserve battery life. When bluetooth is transmitting information to an external device (such as wireless headphones), it’s using battery power.

5

Check Task Manager

Open the Task Manager to look for any processes that are using a lot of resources. They’re likely also drawing more power.
- Press Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager. Click the headers to sort by the selected category.
- You can stop a task by selecting it in the list and clicking End process.
- Only end a task if you know what it is. Stopping certain chromeOS tasks could cause your Chromebook to stop functioning correctly.

6

Close tabs and apps

Close any tabs and apps that you aren’t using. The more you have open, the faster your battery will drain. Limit how many you have open throughout your use to save battery.

7

Deactivate extensions

Turning off active Google Chrome extensions could save battery life. Some extensions run continuously in the background while you’re using Chrome. Luckily, Google has a setting that can allow you to turn off individual extensions.^{[2]
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- Click the More button in the top right of Google Chrome. It looks like three circles stacked vertically.
- Navigate to More tools and then Extensions.
- Click the on/off toggle button in the bottom right of an extension to deactivate it. Turning it off will stop the extension from running while you use Google Chrome.

8

Update when charging

Since updates can use a significant amount of battery life, hold off on updating until you can connect your charger. Updating the operating system especially can use up a lot of battery life.
- If there’s a critical update to chromeOS (such as an important bug fix or security update), you may want to install it as soon as possible.

9

Lock the screen

Locking the screen when you’re not using the Chromebook can save energy. Close the lid after locking the screen to put it to sleep.^{[3]
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- Press Search + L or Launcher + L to lock your screen.^{[4]
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10

Turn off Chromebook

Power down your Chromebook when you’re not going to use it for a while. Your Chromebook uses a small amount of power if you leave it on but asleep. This will drain your battery slowly over time. To turn off your Chromebook, use one of these methods:
- Click the time in the bottom right and select
  .
- Click the time in the bottom right and select Sign out, then Shut down.
- Press and hold the physical power button for 3 seconds.
- Press and hold the physical power button to open the shutdown menu.

11

Clean your Chromebook

If your Chromebook is running hot often, this may drain battery life faster. The more often your laptop is warm, the more it will run the fans to cool it.
- Try cleaning your laptop thoroughly and dusting the internal components to keep the temperature down.
- Make sure to power down your computer before cleaning it.