Easy as a Snap

One of the quickest and easiest ways to check battery life on your AirPods is to simply open the case. Whenever your AirPods are in the case next to your iPhone or iPad, open the case and look at your home screen. After a few seconds, you will see a prompt at the bottom of your screen showing you the battery status of your AirPods and the charging case.

On a Mac (iMac, MacBook/Pro)

To check the AirPods battery on a Mac, open the AirPods case and click on the Bluetooth symbol at the top right of your menu bar. For the fastest result, your AirPods should be connected, but when you click or hover on the AirPods symbol, it will display current battery life.

Adding Widgets

With the release of iOS 14, there are now two different methods to check your AirPods battery life using widgets. Swiping right from the home screen or lock screen as well as adding widgets to your home screen directly can help you look at battery life on your AirPods. For the home or lock screens, swipe right so you see your Today View.

  1. Scroll to the bottom and tap on edit. When the available widgets appear, find the battery life widget and tap on “Add” or the “+” button so that it appears in the list.
  2. You can drag the widget around so that it appears at the top, bottom or anywhere in the middle. Note that the battery widget does not just show your AirPods battery life but also shows battery life for your iPhone and any other connected devices like Apple Pencil, Apple Watch, etc. Adding the battery widget to your home screen is another quick and easy way to track battery life.
  3. Start by touching and holding an empty area on your home screen until the apps start to jiggle.
  4. When you see the “+” sign appear at the top of the upper left of your screen, tap on it.
  5. Locate the battery widget. As you do, you will notice that you have multiple size options for the widget, so choose whichever one works best for you.
  6. Once you have selected the appropriate size, click on “Add Widget” at the bottom of the screen. The widget is now added to your screen, and you can move it around here as well for the best fit.

Ask Siri

When you need to check battery life but also need to stay hands free, Siri to the rescue. Say “Hey Siri” and ask, “How much battery life is left on my AirPods?” Alternatively, you can also say, “Hey Siri, AirPods Battery Life.” Most variations of these phrases will work and, with a successful request to Siri, will then read out or show your battery life onscreen.

AirPods Max

On the AirPods Max in particular, you can determine battery life from the headset itself when they are not connected to any other device. Press the noise button while the headphones are not recharging or inside their Smart Case and the status light/LED will show up as green if there is at least 15 percent battery left. If there is a smaller percentage left, the Max will show as amber.

No Paired Device

When all other methods fail or are not available, you can always check battery life on your AirPods from the charging case. Open up the case and check the color of the little LED light. If it shows as green, the AirPods have more than 50% of their charge available. If it shows amber, they are less than 50% charged.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch does so much it can even show you battery life for your AirPods.

  1. Start by swiping up from the bottom of the watch face to show the Control Center.
  2. Inside the Control Center, tap on the battery percentage icon which initially starts by just showing the battery life of the Apple Watch.
  3. If AirPods are connected, you will see their battery life underneath the Apple Watch percentage remaining.

Final Thoughts

Using any of the methods available on this list should keep you from ever finding yourself without AirPods battery life. Now all you need to do is become a master at stopping your AirPods from switching between devices automatically.