Tools
IoT Battery Life Estimator
Estimate how long your battery-powered IoT device will run on a single charge. Select a device profile, choose your battery, and adjust the reporting frequency.
1. Device power profile
Tracking
Monitoring
Utilities
Security
Waste
Agriculture
Healthcare
Custom
2. Battery
Estimated Battery Life
18.8 days
with 3,500 mAh battery at Every minute
Avg. current draw
7.51 mA
Duty cycle
2.50%
Usable capacity
3395 mAh
after 3% self-discharge
View calculation breakdown
| Active current | 300 mA |
| TX duration | 1500 ms |
| Charge per TX | 125.000 µAh |
| Sleep current | 10 µA |
| Sleep duration per cycle | 58.5s |
| Charge per sleep period | 0.163 µAh |
| Total charge per cycle | 125.163 µAh |
| Average current | 7.510 mA |
| Battery life | 18.8 days (19 days) |
This is a theoretical estimate based on average current draw. Real-world battery life varies with temperature, cell age, peak current demands, voltage droop, and RF conditions. Expect 70-90% of the calculated life in practice. Always prototype and measure.
Need a SIM for a battery-powered device?
Low-power LPWAN networks (LTE-M, NB-IoT) can extend battery life by 10x vs. standard 4G.
How IoT battery life is calculated
Battery life for cellular IoT devices depends on three factors: how much current the device draws during transmission (active mode), how much it draws when sleeping, and how often it wakes up. The average current is calculated from the duty cycle — the ratio of active to sleep time — and divided into the battery capacity.
LPWAN technologies like LTE-M and NB-IoT include power-saving features (PSM, eDRX) that reduce sleep current to single-digit microamps, enabling multi-year battery life. Choosing the right cellular technology is often more impactful than choosing a bigger battery.