How to Improve Windows 11 Battery Life with Energy Saver and Energy Recommendations

Windows 11 has several built-in power controls that can improve battery life without installing a third-party utility. The most useful are Energy Saver and Energy Recommendations.

Turn on Energy Saver

Open Settings > System > Power & battery.
Expand Energy saver.
Choose the battery level at which Energy Saver should turn on automatically.
Enable the option to reduce screen brightness while Energy Saver is active if available.

On newer Windows 11 builds, you can also use Energy Saver while the PC is plugged in when you want lower power consumption.

Use Energy Recommendations

Go to Settings > System > Power & battery > Energy recommendations.

Windows reviews settings that affect power use and suggests changes. You can apply them individually instead of blindly selecting everything.

Choose a more efficient power mode

Under Power & battery, set Power mode to Best power efficiency when you need maximum battery life. Switch back to Balanced when you need more performance.

Reduce display power use

Lower screen brightness.
Shorten screen-off and sleep timers.
Use dark mode on OLED displays.
Enable Dynamic refresh rate under Settings > System > Display > Advanced display if your hardware supports it.

Find apps using the most battery

Open Settings > System > Power & battery > Battery usage. Look for apps with unusually high background activity and close, update, or restrict them where appropriate.

If battery life has suddenly become much worse, also check for a recent driver change, Windows update, excessive background activity, or an aging battery. Power settings can help, but they cannot restore lost battery capacity.