How to Check iPhone and iPad Battery Health (iOS 26): Daily Usage, Adaptive Power

Apple’s Battery settings now report battery health, a seven-day Daily Usage chart, and Adaptive Power. Those features arrived or expanded with iOS 26, and the menu names differ depending on which iPhone you have. Here is where everything lives and what the readings mean.

This guide follows Apple’s own support documentation. You need iOS 26 or later (or iPadOS 26 or later) to see the Daily Usage chart and use Adaptive Power.

Step 1: Open Battery settings

Open Settings and tap Battery. The menu name below the battery-health entry differs by model: iPhone 15 and later use Battery › Battery Health, while iPhone 14 and earlier use Battery › Battery Health & Charging.

Step 2: Read the Daily Usage chart

Above Daily Usage, check Suggestions and Insights. Suggestions may include enable auto-brightness, enable auto-lock and high brightness. Insights (iOS 18 and later) may report an ongoing iOS Update or ongoing device setup, which temporarily affect battery life and thermal performance.

Review the Daily Usage chart, which compares today’s usage with the last seven days and flags whether you are using more, less or a similar amount of battery as usual. Below it, App and System Activity Usage lists the three apps that used the most battery today. Tap an app for its own seven-day chart, and tap View All Battery Usage for the full list. Look for usage types like Background Activity, No Mobile Coverage and Low Signal, Notifications, and Connected to Charger.

Step 3: Check battery health

On iPhone 15 and later (and certain iPad models) go to Settings › Battery › Battery Health. On iPhone 14 and earlier go to Settings › Battery › Battery Health & Charging. iPhone 15 and later with iOS 17.4 and later also show cycle count, manufacture date and first-use date.

If you see Service next to Battery Health, Apple’s guidance is that a battery replacement is worth considering to restore full performance and capacity. If you see Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery, the health data may not be accurate, and Apple recommends getting service.

Apple’s design targets are specific: iPhone 14 models and earlier retain 80 percent of original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions, while iPhone 15 models and later target 1,000 complete charge cycles.

Step 4: Use Adaptive Power and Low Power Mode

Adaptive Power (iOS 26 or later, supported on iPhone 18 models, iPhone Duo, iPhone 17 models, iPhone Air, iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro) can predict high-use days and automatically turn on Low Power Mode at 20 percent.

Use Low Power Mode manually at Settings › Battery › Power Mode, or from Control Center. It reduces Mail fetch, Hey Siri, Background App Refresh and some visual effects, and turns off automatically above 80 percent charge.

Prefer Wi-Fi over cellular where you can. On iPhone 12 and later, iPhone SE (3rd generation) and 5G iPads, turn on 5G Auto at Settings › Cellular › Cellular Data Options › Voice & Data › 5G Auto.

If battery life dropped after an update

Wait a few days. Background update tasks can continue after an update and show up as the ongoing iOS Update Insight. If the insight is still present well after the update finished, that is worth investigating rather than assuming it is normal.

For the wider device-health picture, our guide to checking whether your router is slowing down your streaming covers a different kind of performance check that uses the same principle: measure before you change anything.

What we did not do

We did not test battery health on a live device, and Adaptive Power availability depends on your exact model. Menu labels can vary slightly by iOS version; Apple’s support pages are authoritative for your device.