Google Chrome features a built-in “Energy Saver” mode designed to maximize the battery life of laptops and tablets. When your device is unplugged or drops below 20% battery, Chrome automatically throttles background activity. It limits visual effects, reduces the frame rate of animations, and decreases the polling rate of complex web applications.
While this is a lifesaver on a long flight, it can make heavy web apps (like browser-based video editors, complex Google Sheets, or web games) feel incredibly sluggish and unresponsive. If you value smooth performance over battery life, or if Chrome mistakenly triggers this mode while you are plugged in, you can completely disable the Energy Saver feature.
How to Turn Off Chrome’s Energy Saver Mode
You can disable this throttling directly from the main Chrome settings menu.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the window.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Performance.
- Look for the section titled “Power” near the bottom of the page.
- You will see a toggle switch labelled Energy Saver.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it completely Off.
By disabling this feature, Chrome will no longer throttle website animations or reduce background process priorities, regardless of your laptop’s current battery percentage. Web pages will load and scroll with maximum smoothness at all times.