Low Power Mode on Mac: How to enable it and does it help?

If you're looking for info on Low Power Mode on Mac, then I can guess that you're having issues with quick battery drain. It's a situation all Mac users end up experiencing at some point, and believe me, I've been there more than once. I've put this article together to talk over what Low Power Mode is, when it's useful, and if it's safe for the long term, plus a bunch of other bonus tips on how you can extend and maximize your battery life.

What Is Low Power Mode on Mac?

The Low Power Mode on your MacBook is there to help you reduce energy and CPU usage when your Mac is running out of juice. Contrary to what some users believe, it's not a long-term battery health tool, and I think that's important to mention.

Low Power Mode makes some tweaks to features and functions like clock speed, screen brightness, and background activity, helping you get a bit longer out of your current cycle. Something else interesting I discovered: on Sequoia 15.1 and later, Low Power Mode can actually help reduce fan noise only on actively cooled models. It has a quick toggle in Control Center.

It's actually a feature that's only available on Apple Silicon Macs; here are the compatible models:

• MacBook Air M3-M5

• MacBook Pro M3-M5

• iMac 2023-2024

• Mac mini 2023-2024

• Mac Studio 2023-2025

If your Mac isn’t in that list, then you don’t have the low mode feature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t manage your battery life. I’ll get to that a little later.

You might also be wondering about other power modes, so let me touch on that briefly, too. Apple also has Automatic and, on certain MacBook Pro models, High Power.

As you might expect, the automatic mode is the normal, standard default, and High Power mode is meant for users running big, heavy workloads. It basically boosts the fans into overdrive.

How to turn on Low Power Mode on Mac

On Ventura and later, including Tahoe, this is the path I use:

1. Open Apple menu > System Settings > Battery.

2. Next to the Low Power Mode name, click on the dropdown, and pick one of these options;

• Always

• Only on Battery

• Only on Power Adapter

You’ll then see in your menu bar that your battery icon is coloured in yellow, which means it's working.

If you’re on macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later, then you can hover over the Control Center > Battery section and toggle Low Battery mode on.

If you're on macOS Monterey or earlier, it’s the same, just the wording is a bit different:

1. From the Apple menu > System Preferences > Battery.

2. Click on the Energy Mode dropdown.

Whatever method you use, if you decide to turn it off, follow the same path you used, and just select Never to turn it off.

Is Low Power mode bad for Mac?

Low Power Mode is absolutely safe to use, and even leaving it on won't cause any kind of damage to your Mac, but there are a couple of tradeoffs.

You'll notice a bit of a dip in performance if you're video editing or doing any kind of 3D rendering. The screen brightness is probably the only annoying thing, but it'll have minimal impact on general usage. Honestly, most of the time I really don't notice it's on.

If your battery is on the low side, and you know you have to do some work while commuting or away from a power supply, then it's a great feature, but if you've got access to a power source, or you need to do some big media work, I'd turn it off; it's a bit unnecessary.

More ways to extend your Mac's battery life

Low Power Mode isn't the only way you can get more out of a cycle; there are some really simple tricks that will help you extend usage time. Here's what I do.

• Put my Mac to sleep when I'm taking a break.

• Dim my display brightness manually using F1 and F2.

• Turn off my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when I'm not using them and disconnect any USB drives or external peripherals.

• I use Activity Monitor to quit resource-heavy background apps.

• I enable Optimized Battery Charging in System Settings > Battery > Battery Health.

Applications are usually the biggest hidden cause of battery drain, all the little processes and actions running in the background. These days, I use the Applications feature from CleanMyMac to manage my apps because it’s all in one place, and you get a really simple overview. Here’s how:

1. Start your free CleanMyMac trial — you can test it for 7 days free.

2. Open the app and click Applications > Scan > Manage My Applications.

3. You can quickly remove apps you don’t use, update the ones you do, and even remove sneaky app leftovers.

What's draining your battery in the first place?

Sometimes, really understanding what is causing a quick-draining battery is the best place to start; here’s what I do.

1. Open Activity Monitor from your Utilities.

2. Click on the Energy tab, and see what's hogging the most resources.

3. Close down anything that doesn’t need to be open.

If you’re not 100% comfortable in Activity Monitor, you could also use the Performance feature from CleanMyMac, too. It actually lets you manage login items and background activity all in one place; here’s how:

1. Open the app and click Performance > Scan.

2. Click View All Tasks.

3. Take a look through all the categories and remove stuff that could be causing battery drain in the background or at startup.

So, now you’re a pro on all things Low Power Mode on Mac.