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How to turn on your iPhone’s battery percentage with iOS 16

Apple nixed the iPhone’s battery percentage five years ago, but now — for some supported models — it’s made a welcome return.

How to turn on your iPhone’s battery percentage with iOS 16
Raymond Wong / Input

For reasons nobody can fathom, Apple nixed the iPhone’s battery percentage five years ago. But the breakup wasn’t meant to be, and now, with iOS 16, Apple is giving customers what they want — hopefully for good this time.

If you want more precision on just how much juice your iPhone’s battery has left, here’s how to enable iOS 16’s resurrected battery percentage feature.

How to turn on your iPhone’s battery percentage

Putting a battery percentage at the top of your iPhone’s screen is easy and can be enabled and disabled whenever you like.

Remember: No mini iPhones are supported due to their smaller screen size, so battery percentage is only available on the following iPhones:

  • iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
  • iPhone X

Follow these steps to enable your iPhone’s battery percentage indicator.

Enable your iPhone’s battery percentage indicator to get a better feel for how much juice is left.Oliver Haslam / Input
  • Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
  • Scroll down and tap “Battery.”
  • Toggle the battery percentage option to the “On” position to enable the new feature. You can toggle the option to the “Off” position to disable it again.

Reading the battery percentage indicator

Your iPhone now shows you its battery status in percentage form, but the display changes slightly depending on a number of factors.

  • The battery indicator turns yellow when the iPhone is in Low Power Mode.
  • The battery indicator turns red if your iPhone’s battery is below 20 percent and not in Low Power Mode.
  • A small charging icon appears beside the battery percentage when the iPhone is charging.

The battery indicator has a full white background at all other times and displays the percentage in black.

The battery percentage has a charging icon when your iPhone is charging.Raymond Wong / Input

Battery anxiety is real

With battery percentage, you’ll benefit from seeing exactly how much power is left in your iPhone’s battery. But not everyone likes to know; some people find that the percentage actually makes them more anxious, and choose to use the less accurate picture-based indicator instead. You can probably leave it turned off if you always have a charger nearby, but everyone’s circumstances are different. Think deep and let your level of inner battery neurosis be the judge.

More iOS 16 guides