You Can Now Limit Your Pixel’s Charging to 80%, but There’s a Catch

Thanks to Google Pixel drop for December 2024you can now set your Pixel phone to stop charging at 80 percent. However, there are a couple of exceptions, including one that people are just now discovering.

You can now set your Pixel to stop charging at 80 percent

Following other phone manufacturers, Google is now offering Pixel owners the option to limit their phone to 80% charge capacity. This is designed to preserve and extend battery life, as charging mobile phone batteries to 100% is known to increase stress on the battery, shortening its life.

To prevent your Google Pixel from charging to 80 percent, first, make sure your phone is up to date. To do that, open the Settings menu, scroll down to Software updatesand touch Click System Update > Check for Update. If there is an update available for your phone, it will be downloaded and applied.

Assuming you, a. have an eligible Pixel phone, and b. have applied the latest update (Android 15 QPR1), you can now limit the load to 80%. To do so, open the Settings menu, scroll down to Batteryand touch Touch the Load optimization option, and select it 80% limit.

We discussed before the fact that Your Google Pixel sometimes charges more than 80% (intentionally, to recalibrate the estimated capacity). However, there is another catch that Pixel owners hoping to use this feature to extend their battery life should be aware of.

Your Pixel will charge up to 100 percent if the phone is turned off

Even if you have chosen the option to have your Pixel stop charging at 80 percent, to do so, it will have to be powered. If you let your phone’s battery die completely, or otherwise turn it off before connecting to charge, your phone will charge all the way back to 100 percent.

This is not entirely unexpected. As noted by 9to5GoogleThis is probably due to the fact that the 80 percent load limit is related to the Android operating system, and not to a deeper system level. Which means that when Android is not running, the hardware has no way of knowing that it is meant to stop charging at 80 percent.

This is a bit frustrating, but not a major problem. Especially since most people keep their phones on constantly, and rarely let the battery run down to zero before connecting.