Preserve battery health by setting your Pixel to stop charging at 80%; here’s how

In an update to Android 15, Google’s Pixel phones can now set charging limits to prevent the phone from charging past 80%. This setting has a completely valid reason for existing, and some users might want to turn it on to save their Pixel’s battery in the long-term.

Why you might want to limit your battery

In general, modern cell phone batteries have a limited life span that lasts over a certain amount of charging cycles. The standards for how long batteries last are fluid and rely on the charging behaviors of the user. If a user leaves their phone on a charger almost all of the time with no limits in place, that battery is likely to last a rather short amount of time.

On the other hand, if that battery were only allowed to charge at 70% or 80% of its entire capacity, then that battery would theoretically last much longer than the average lifespan for the cell model, saving potential cost in the future and overall battery life for the Pixel or other device. That’s where Google’s new setting comes in.

Charging optimization is a simple tool that limits the phone’s battery, allowing it to only charge up to 80%. In doing so, the trade-off is a lessened battery life per charge but a much longer cell life, which could save the user money if they planned on keeping the device for a long period of time.

How to turn on the Pixel’s charging optimization

Turning on the feature is very easy, and Google makes the process simple.

1. On your Pixel phone, head to and open the Settings.
2. Find and tap Battery.
3. Select Charging optimization.
4. Select between adaptive charging and Limit to 80%, which is the extreme form of adaptive charging.

Adaptive charging will charge to 100%, but only right before you usually unplug the device. The limit feature is there as an end-all solution and will never allow your device to charge past that set percentage in order to save the Pixel’s battery over a long period of time. Of course, you can always undo the feature.

Note: This feature is available for Android 15 Pixel devices. On other devices, it may fall under a different name, like Samsung’s battery protection feature.