How to Enable Low Power Mode on an Apple iPad

When you are traveling on a long flight or working remotely from a coffee shop without access to a wall outlet, battery anxiety is a serious concern. While the Apple iPad features excellent standby time, heavy usage—like rendering video or playing 3D games—can drain the battery rapidly. To squeeze out several extra hours of screen-on time in an emergency, you should activate Low Power Mode. Introduced to the iPad in iPadOS 15, this feature intelligently throttles background tasks to extend your battery’s lifespan.

What Low Power Mode Actually Does

When you flip the switch, Low Power Mode performs several aggressive system optimizations under the hood:

• Background Fetching is Disabled: The Mail app will stop constantly polling the server for new emails; you will only get new messages when you manually open the app.
• Refresh Rates Drop: If you own an iPad Pro with a 120Hz ProMotion display, the screen refresh rate is instantly capped at a standard 60Hz to save rendering power.
• Visual Effects are Reduced: Advanced UI animations and visual bloat are minimized.
• Auto-Lock Speeds Up: The screen will automatically turn off and lock much faster when the iPad is idle.

How to Enable Low Power Mode via Settings

You can turn the feature on manually at any time, even if your battery is at 100%.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPad’s Home Screen.
2. Scroll down the left-hand navigation sidebar and tap on Battery.
3. Look at the very top of the right-hand panel. You will see a toggle switch labeled Low Power Mode.
4. Tap the switch to turn it to the ON (green) position.

The moment you enable the feature, the battery icon in the top-right corner of your iPad’s status bar will turn yellow, confirming that the power-saving constraints are active.

How to Add Low Power Mode to the Control Center

If you find yourself using this feature frequently, digging into the Settings app every time is tedious. You can add a permanent shortcut directly to your swipe-down Control Center.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on Control Center in the left sidebar.
3. Scroll down to the “More Controls” list and find Low Power Mode (it has a yellow battery icon).
4. Tap the green + (plus) button next to it to move it into your “Included Controls” list.

Now, no matter what app you are using, you can simply swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open the Control Center and tap the yellow battery icon to toggle Low Power Mode on or off instantly.