How to Check the Battery Health of a Linux Laptop via Terminal

Laptop batteries degrade over time. If your Linux laptop is dying quickly, you can use the terminal to check its exact capacity and health status without installing extra software.

Using the upower command

1. Open your terminal.
2. Type upower -e to list your power devices. Note the path that ends in “battery_BAT0” (or similar).
3. Type upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0 (replace the path if yours is different).
4. Look for the capacity line in the output. A capacity of 80% or lower indicates the battery has significantly degraded.