Does iPhone Stop Charging at 100?

As an iPhone owner, I know how frustrating it can be when your device stops charging at 100%. After endless trial and error, I finally figured out the answer to this seemingly never-ending cycle.

Yes, your iPhone comes with an internal charger that prevents it from getting overcharged or completely depleted. This is why it stops charging at 100 percent. It also shuts down before the battery reaches zero percent.

Despite this, it’s a bad practice to constantly allow the phone to reach the battery’s full percentage each time you charge it.

Topic	Details
Why Is It a Bad Practice to Charge Your iPhone Up to 100 Percent?	Charging an iPhone up to 100 percent constantly can cause the lithium-ion battery to degrade faster, losing its full capacity after around 500 charge cycles. It’s better to charge the phone up to 80 to 90 percent each time.
How to Check an iPhone Battery’s Capacity?	Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health. The percentage under the Maximum Capacity tab shows your phone’s battery capacity relative to when it was new. Lower numbers mean fewer hours of phone use in between charges.
What Will Happen If I Leave My iPhone Charging Overnight?	iPhones with iOS 13 and later have the Optimized Battery Charging feature that stops charging at 80 percent and resumes charging based on your daily routine. If your iPhone remains plugged in hours after reaching 100 percent, you’ll get a notification to unplug it to improve battery health. However, occasional overnight charging won’t significantly harm the battery life.
What’s the Best Way to Charge my iPhone?	Charge the phone before the battery goes below 20 percent. This prevents the phone from having zero charges and ensures optimal battery life.
Tips to Keep Your iPhone’s Battery in Good Condition	1. Turn on Auto-Brightness settings or dim the screen. 2. Connect to Wi-Fi instead of using phone data. 3. Download the latest software updates. 4. Enable Low Power Mode when the battery level reaches 20 or 10 percent. 5. Charge and sustain the battery level at around 50 percent if you’re not going to use the phone for a long time.

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Why Is It a Bad Practice to Charge Your iPhone Up to 100 Percent?

Most iPhone users prefer charging their devices up to 100 percent. The number ensures they have fully charged their phones so that they can use them for longer.

The iPhone, like many modern electronics, uses a lithium-ion battery. This battery has a limited number of cycles or charges before it begins to degrade.

The lithium-ion battery that powers your iPhone has a full charge cycle of approximately 500 (and for an iPad, it’s 1,000). This means that after 500 cycles of constantly getting charged up to 100 percent and fully discharged, the battery starts to lose its full capacity.

A good idea to start practicing is to charge your phone up to 80 to 90 percent every time you plug it in. This should slow down the battery’s degradation process.

How to Check an iPhone Battery’s Capacity?

If you have had your phone for some time now, you can check how much its battery has degraded.

First, you have to click Settings, then Battery, and go to Battery Health.

The percentage that reflects on the data under the Maximum Capacity tab is your phone’s battery capacity relative to when it was new.

For example, if it shows 95 percent, your battery has already worn out 5 percent of its capacity since you had the phone.

Lower numbers mean fewer hours of phone use in between charges.

What Will Happen If I Leave My iPhone Charging Overnight?

Apple came up with the Optimized Battery Charging feature for iPhones with iOS 13 and later iOS devices. This allows the phone to work based on your daily charging routine when you turn this on.

Your iPhone will stop charging at 80 percent. Then, the device will resume charging once it detects you are ready to use it.

This gives the phone ample time to reach 100 percent before you unplug it. It also ensures that the battery won’t keep recharging for hours even after it reaches 100 percent.

Still, if your iPhone remains plugged in hours after it has reached 100 percent, you will get a notification to unplug it to improve battery health.

You don’t need to panic if you have forgotten to unplug the phone after it reaches 100 percent, though. As long as you don’t do it often, your iPhone’s battery life will sustain its maximum power longer.

What’s the Best Way to Charge my iPhone?

If your battery shuts down, ensure you don’t wait too long before plugging it in. The phone will still have a small amount of energy left, which can deplete if you wait for hours before charging it.

To prevent the phone from having zero charges, make it a habit to plug it in before the battery goes lower than 20 percent.

At 20 percent, the phone will begin throttling background tasks and performance to prevent the battery from depleting further. This gives you enough time to connect the phone to a power source before it reaches an extremely low charge rate.

Tips to Keep Your iPhone’s Battery in Good Condition

Aside from proper charging and discharging habits, the following tips can keep your iPhone’s battery in good condition longer:

Turn on the Auto-Brightness settings or dim the screen.
Connect to Wi-Fi if you have access rather than using your phone’s data since Wi-Fi consumes less power.
Download the latest software update available for the iOS of your iPhone.

In case your phone’s battery level reaches 20 or 10 percent, you can extend its battery life by enabling the Low Power Mode.
Charge and sustain the phone’s battery level at around 50 percent if you’re not going to use it for a long time.

Final Thoughts

An iPhone is powered by a lithium-ion battery with total charge cycles of 500. This means that it begins to have a lower-charge capacity after it has been fully charged and discharged 500 times.

Therefore, you’ll need to make sure to charge the phone before the battery drops below 20 percent if you want to get the most out of its battery life.

Once it reaches 100 percent, it stops charging, but you still have to unplug it.