How to Check Battery Health on Android

Android 16 introduced a dedicated Battery health page, expanded in the QPR1 update in late 2025. On supported phones it lives at Settings > Battery > Battery health. No hidden menus, no developer options.

Support is where it gets annoying. Google restricted the full feature to the Pixel 8a, the Pixel 9 series, and newer, including the Pixel 10 line. The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro were excluded, officially due to "product limitations": older batteries were not factory-calibrated to report this data reliably, and Google decided an inaccurate number was worse than none.

Non-Pixel phones do not get Google's version at all. Samsung and others build their own battery screens, covered below. If your phone has neither, skip to the AccuBattery section.

On a Pixel 8a or newer running Android 16, open Settings > Battery > Battery health. Two things matter here.

Battery status. Normal means capacity is within expected limits for the battery's age. Reduced means estimated capacity has dropped below 80 percent of new. Unavailable means the phone cannot currently estimate capacity, common right after a factory reset or major update; run a few full cycles, roughly 15 percent up to 100, and the estimate settles.

Battery capacity. Tap through for the estimated percentage of charge the battery holds now versus a new standard battery. A phone that shipped with a 4,492 mAh cell showing 90 percent effectively has a 4,043 mAh battery today. It is an estimate recalculated over time, not a live sensor reading, so a point or two of movement between checks is normal.

On the same screen sits Battery health assistance. It gradually lowers the battery's maximum charging voltage as the battery ages, in stages starting around 200 charge cycles and continuing to 1,000 cycles, and tunes charging speed to match. The goal is to slow chemical aging and avoid the sudden capacity cliffs and swelling that hit phones like the Pixel 4a and 6a, which needed emergency battery-limiting updates.

The trade-off is real: as voltage steps down, runtime per charge drops slightly and charging can feel slower. Google says plainly that you "may notice slight changes" in both.

Google lists the feature for the Pixel 6a and later. On most of those, a switch labeled Use battery health assistance on the same screen lets you turn it off. On the Pixel 9a and newer it is on by default and cannot be disabled. My take: leave it on if you keep phones three years or more; the runtime you lose per charge is smaller than the capacity you preserve.

Android also exposes charge cycle count and battery manufacture date on phones whose batteries support the reporting. On a Pixel 8a or newer, check Settings > About phone > Battery information, a different screen from Battery health.

Cycle count is the useful figure. One cycle equals one full discharge and recharge of 100 percent of capacity in any combination, so two half-discharges count as one. Modern lithium cells are typically rated to keep at least 80 percent capacity through 800 to 1,000 cycles; heavy users burn 350 to 450 a year. A phone showing 900 cycles and Reduced status is aging as designed, not malfunctioning.

The manufacture date matters most when buying used: a "lightly used" listing with a three-year-old battery and 700 cycles tells you what you are actually getting.

Samsung has three routes. One UI 7 added a Battery information page at Settings > Battery > Battery information showing maximum capacity percentage, cycle count, and manufacture date, essentially matching the Pixel screen. Rollout is the frustration: availability varies by model and region, with the Galaxy S25 series and newer flagships covered first and many A-series phones still missing it in 2026. If the entry is not in your Battery settings, your model does not have it yet.

Device Care (Settings > Device care > Battery) gives a coarse Good or Normal verdict rather than a percentage. Treat it as a smoke test, not a measurement.

Samsung Members works on nearly every Galaxy. Open the app, tap Support, choose Phone diagnostics, and run the Battery status test. It returns a condition rating: Good or Normal means the battery is performing within expected limits, while Weak or Bad means capacity has noticeably degraded from long-term use, and Samsung's own guidance at that point is to book a battery service.

Dialer codes are the folk remedy of Android diagnostics, and most 2026 guides repeat them without checking. The honest state of play:

*#*#4636#*#* opens a hidden Testing menu on phones that still allow it; type it into the stock dialer and it launches without pressing call. On current Pixels it shows phone and Wi-Fi diagnostics, but the battery section old Android versions had there was removed years ago, so no capacity data. Samsung and many others block the code on recent builds.

*#0228# is Samsung's battery status code. Where it works it shows voltage, temperature, and current charge, but it is blocked on One UI 8 and later, so on a 2026-current Galaxy it usually does nothing, and it never showed long-term health anyway.

Bottom line: dialer codes are a dead end for health data in 2026. If your phone lacks a native screen, an app is the answer.

If you own a Pixel 8 Pro, an older Galaxy, or anything without a native health screen, AccuBattery (free on Google Play, from Digibites) remains the standard tool. Android does not let apps read battery capacity directly, so AccuBattery measures the current flowing in while you charge, totals it, and compares the measured milliamp-hours against your phone's design capacity. If it measures 3,600 mAh across a 0 to 100 percent charge on a 4,500 mAh phone, health is 80 percent.

To get a trustworthy number: install it, exempt it from battery optimization so it can log in the background, then charge normally for one to two weeks. The app only counts sessions covering more than 60 percent of the battery in one charge and averages the last several qualifying sessions, so a few deliberate charges from around 15 percent to full build an estimate far faster than small top-ups, which never qualify.

Expect the figure to wobble a few points between sessions; watch the trend over weeks, not one reading. Before stacking it with other battery utilities, check our battery saver apps roundup, because multiple battery apps can fight over background permissions.

Every tool above reports the same thing: current capacity as a percentage of design capacity. A few points trip people up.

It is always an estimate. No sensor reads out remaining capacity; the fuel gauge chip infers it from voltage curves, current, and temperature. Two tools can legitimately disagree by 3 to 5 points on the same phone.

80 percent is the industry service line, not a death sentence. Below it, degradation accelerates and voltage sag starts causing real symptoms. A phone at 82 percent works fine; it just runs out earlier than it used to.

Capacity is not battery life. A phone at 95 percent with a runaway background app dies faster than a well-configured phone at 82 percent. If runtime cratered suddenly rather than declining over a year, software is the likelier culprit, and a sluggish phone often shares the same root causes, covered in our guide to speeding up a slow Android phone.

Replace now if: capacity reads below 80 percent and the phone no longer lasts your day; it shuts down at 20 to 30 percent remaining, meaning voltage sag is defeating the fuel gauge; the back cover bulges or the screen lifts, which means a swelling cell and a safety issue regardless of any percentage; or it runs hot during light use. A battery swap typically costs somewhere between 50 and 100 dollars in the US, and self-repair is an option: Google sells genuine Pixel parts through iFixit, while Samsung routes its self-repair parts through SamsungParts.com after ending its iFixit partnership in 2024.

Change habits if: capacity is above roughly 85 percent and the real complaint is daily drain. Fix the software first, then slow future aging: enable the 80 percent charging limit (Settings > Battery > Charging optimization on Pixels; Settings > Battery > Battery protection on Samsung), keep the phone out of heat while charging, prefer slow charging to repeated fast top-ups, and do not routinely run to zero.

The gray zone, 80 to 85 percent: tighten the habits above, recheck in two months, and budget for a replacement within the year. Batteries do not recover; the only question is how gently you ride the decline.