If it feels like your phone battery isn’t lasting as long as it used to—you’re not imagining it. A new study from telecoms and network company Elevate shows that smartphone batteries are taking a beating, and certain apps are very much to blame.
According to the research, the average smartphone battery lifespan has dropped by 23% since 2019. Back then, most of us could get away with charging every day and a half. Now? Daily charging is the norm, and for heavy users, sometimes even twice a day.
So which apps are the worst offenders?
Netflix: The Battery Killer
No surprise here—streaming video is brutal on battery life. But Netflix is in a league of its own. The study found people spend about 60 hours a month watching Netflix, and the app runs another 13 hours in the background. Together, that drains a staggering 1,500% of a full charge every month.
Put simply: Netflix doesn’t just drain your time, it drains your phone too.
TikTok and YouTube Aren’t Far Behind
In second place is TikTok, sucking down 825% of a charge monthly thanks to 33 hours of screen time plus nearly 10 hours of background activity.
YouTube ranks third with 540%, pulling 20% of your battery per hour of viewing. The fact that it’s slightly more efficient than Netflix or TikTok doesn’t really matter—you’re still glued to it for almost 30 hours a month.
Threads, Snapchat & CapCut: The Hidden Drains
Meta’s Twitter competitor, Threads, comes in fourth, burning through 460% of your monthly battery. Snapchat is fifth at 320%, with background activity chewing up more than half the time you’re actually in the app.
CapCut deserves a special mention—it drains battery faster than any other app: about 30% every hour of editing. Luckily, most people only spend around 10 hours a month in it, or it’d easily be higher up the list.
The Socials: Instagram & Facebook
Instagram and Facebook are next on the list, at 300% and 270% respectively. They don’t seem too bad until you factor in background activity—Instagram ticks away for 4.5 hours a month, and Facebook chews through 5.7 hours even when you’re not using it.
Spotify: The Sneaky Culprit
You might think music streaming would be light on battery drain—but Spotify proves otherwise. While it only uses 5% per hour, it’s the background activity champion, running for 13.5 hours a month even when you’re not listening. That makes it the ninth-worst app overall, at 225% monthly drain.
And Finally… ChatGPT
Rounding out the top 10 is ChatGPT. With only 10 hours of average use, it consumes about 200% of a full charge monthly, which is still more efficient than the social and video-heavy apps above it—but 20% per hour is nothing to sneeze at.
What’s Really Going On?
An Elevate spokesperson summed it up perfectly:
“The background processes are the hidden culprits stealing power throughout the day, not just the heavy-hitting streaming apps like Netflix. Apps like Spotify continue consuming significant battery even when you're not actively listening, highlighting the importance of managing background app refresh settings for optimal battery performance.”
The Takeaway
If you’re sick of living life tethered to a charging cable, the study makes it clear: Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube are your biggest battery killers, while Spotify and Snapchat are sneaky drains in the background.
Want to stretch your battery longer? Turn off background app refresh, download shows/music for offline use, and maybe—just maybe—spend a little less time doomscrolling.
Full credit to Elevate for the research.
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