How Long Do I Need To Charge My New iPad?

So you have a new iPad, and you want to know how long it needs to charge before you can use it. Luckily, most new iPads charge quickly.

But how long do you need to let your new iPad charge before you can safely start using it?

How Long Do I Need To Charge My New iPad?

10 minutes of charging is required before a new iPad is usable, but only if it’s kept charging while used. Unplugging it and letting it run at low capacity will risk permanently damaging the battery. Keep it plugged in until it’s fully charged, which may take 5-7 hours the first time.

Now that you know the time frame you’re looking at to charge your iPad, let’s look at the best way to charge it, why you should never let it die, and how to maximize the life of your iPad’s battery.

Charging Practices

Don’t worry about “overcharging” your new iPad. 

The battery in your iPad has a certain capacity, and it’s impossible to exceed that. 

Don’t buy into the myth that “overcharging” your iPad will decrease the lifetime of the battery. 

Even if it were a real problem, the software on your device is already programmed to stop it from being a problem.

The best practice for taking care of your iPad is charging it regularly, and there’s a setting to help with that.

iOS 13 and later have an option called “Optimized Charging,” which schedules the time your iPad can charge based on when you want to use it.

What Optimized Charging does is charge your iPad up to 80%.

It then holds it there until a few minutes before it expects you to need it, giving it just enough time to reach 100% before you unplug it. 

Pretty cool, right?

This does take a while to kick in, at least two to three weeks, because the iPad has to keep track of when you tend to use it before it can figure out when it needs to be fully charged.

Enable the setting and make a habit of plugging it in every night.

As time goes on, or you try charging your iPad with charging ports other than the one that came with it, you might find that it charges slower. 

This could be because some devices are picky about the wall chargers you use for them, and different chargers have different strengths. 

Every device needs a certain strength of charger, and chargers wear out over time.

Your best bet is to use the wall charger that came with your device, or another 10W wall charger. 

You can purchase a new iPad charger at Apple or another retailer if your current iPad charger breaks. 

Don’t Let It Die!

iPads use lithium batteries, which are different from nickel-based batteries (which the battery myths are based on). 

You can use your iPad before it charges to 100%, and you can charge it before it gets close to 0%.

In fact, you should always make sure to charge it before it gets even close to zero.

20% is the lowest you should let it get down to if you have the option to charge it.

This will help you make sure that it doesn’t die so that you have it when you need it. 

You don’t want it to die when you are in the middle of something important like composing an email or even beating the next level of your favorite game.

If your iPad’s battery ever drains completely, it will be permanently damaged.

You can recharge it, but the battery will remember that it died and its performance will be negatively affected.

If it ever does get down to 0% and shuts down, charge it immediately. 

Like a fuel gauge, 0% doesn’t mean that it’s completely empty. 

It still has enough juice to ensure the battery doesn’t instantly die, but the power will continue to drain even if it’s off.

Keep It Healthy

If you want the battery of your iPad to last, here are some things you can do to treat it well and keep it going for many years.

Protect it from extreme temperatures. 

Conditions above 95° Fahrenheit can damage the capacity of your iPad’s battery permanently. 

This includes storing your iPad in hot conditions, as well as cases that might heat up and cause the battery to grow warm.

On the other hand, while temperatures below freezing (32° Fahrenheit) can drain the battery, this effect is only temporary and will go away when your device warms back up.

If you ever need to store your iPad for a longer period than a day or so, try to make sure its battery is at about 50%. 

Whenever you store a device and don’t charge it, the battery slowly drains.

If you store an iPad at 100%, the battery will drain too quickly.

On the other hand, if you store it near zero, it will also drain and then completely die.

Storing it at 50% battery life is the best way to ensure that it will still have some battery life left when you come back to it.

Another way to treat your battery well is to use Wi-Fi instead of data.

Wi-Fi uses less power than a connection to cellular data, so using Wi-Fi as your default way to access the internet is a great way to preserve your battery.

Low Power Mode (iOS 9 and later) is another way to save power when the battery is on its last legs and you don’t have a charger nearby. 

When your iPad is at 20%, it will prompt you to turn on Low Power Mode. 

If you ignore that, it will repeat the prompt at 10%.

Low Power Mode optimizes your iPad’s performance to only use power for essential processes.

You can also turn the brightness down to make the charge last longer. 

The automatic brightness settings use a light sensor that is inside of the iPad screen to determine how bright to make the display. 

If you want to preserve the battery life of your iPad, turn the brightness settings down, especially when you are not planning on using it for a few hours. 

iPads charge relatively quickly, but if you want the battery to last, don’t let it get below 20%.