Does your iPhone charge faster on Low Power Mode? Here's what you need to know

Your iPhone charges faster on Low Power Mode than on the standard battery mode.
Low Power Mode conserves your iPhone’s battery life by reducing or disabling certain automatic system functions and background apps.
Your iPhone can charge faster when the battery is powering fewer things.
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When your iPhone battery is running low, and you have limited time to charge it (whether you’re headed out of the house or already out and looking for an outlet to use), it’s essential to make the most of that time to ensure you’re not walking around with a dead phone.

As you switch on Low Power Mode to conserve phone battery, you may be wondering whether this also helps your phone charge faster.

Here’s everything you need to know about Apple iPhones’ Low Power Mode.

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iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

What you need to know about Low Power Mode on an iPhone

Low Power Mode is an iPhone feature that reduces functionality to optimize device and battery performance. LPM helps to conserve battery life by reducing or affecting certain features.

When in Low Power Mode, your phone will reduce settings like display brightness and system animations, and disable other iPhone-specific features like AirDrop and iCloud sync. Other system functions like Siri, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and auto-lock are also affected.

Low Power Mode doesn't stop or impact your ability to use critical features like accessing the web, making and receiving phone calls, or sending emails and messages.

iPhone power save mode 1

Foto: Your battery icon will appear yellow when in Low Power Mode. Source: Abigail Abesamis/Business Insider

Low Power Mode does help your iPhone charge faster

When you put your iPhone in Low Power Mode, you're telling it to do less. With more energy freed up, your phone can focus more on charging.

So yes, Low Power Mode does charge your iPhone faster, but its significance can vary. In a test, an iPhone 6S charged from 17% to a full charge (100%) in 2 hours and 50 minutes without Low Power Mode activated. With Low Power Mode on, the iPhone 6S charged 17% to 100% in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

In the controlled test (no Low Power Mode), the iPhone reached a 66% charge in one hour, and 93% after two hours. In Low Power Mode, the iPhone reached a 73% charge in one hour, and 95% after two hours. During both tests, the iPhone wasn't touched except to check charge levels every 10 minutes. At an 80% charge, the iPhone automatically turned off Low Power Mode, which was turned back on for the test.

How to turn on Low Power Mode on an iPhone

When your iPhone battery goes down to 20%, a Low Battery notification pops up, and you're prompted to turn on Low Power Mode. When this happens, tap Low Power Mode to activate it. When Low Power Mode is enabled, your remaining battery percentage turns yellow.

Foto: This notification will pop-up whenever your phone hits 20% if it's not already in Low Power Mode. Source: Abigail Abesamis/Business Insider

Alternatively, you can enable Low Power Mode manually. Here's how to do it.

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down and select Battery.

iphone low power mode 2

Tap the slider next to Low Power Mode to activate it.

iphone low power mode 2

Foto: The toggle turns green when Low Power mode is engaged. Source: Abigail Abesamis/Business Insider

Other methods for speeding up iPhone charging speed

In addition to Low Power Mode, other battery-saving strategies like turning on Airplane Mode, not using your phone (to browse, check emails, scroll through Instagram, etc.), and turning off your phone will help it to charge faster. For additional tricks to speed up iPhone charging, check out these charging hacks.