Google has known about an issue for four months that could cause the Pixel battery drain
There are also some apps that you can uninstall that might improve your Pixel's battery life.
Four month old bug could cause Pixel battery drain | Image by PhoneArena
I never get upset when my Pixel battery drains so fast. But that's because I own the Pixel 6 Pro and the battery is so degraded that I have to use my car's jumper cables to get the phone to turn on. But for those of you with newer Pixel models, there are always complaints that the battery is draining too fast and that you're not getting the battery life you would expect from such a large capacity cell.
Despite having a smaller battery capacity, the Pixel 11 Pro XL could get much better battery life
I remember when I got my Pixel 6 Pro, which was the first phone I owned to sport a 5000 mAh battery. I was expecting decent battery life but instead, I was disappointed. The Pixel 11 Pro XL battery capacity is rumored to be 5115mAh, reduced from the Pixel 10 Pro XL's 5200mAh cell.
Despite the smaller battery capacity, there are other factors at play that could give Pixel 11 Pro XL users improved battery life. First, the Tensor G6 processor will be manufactured by TSMC using its 2nm process node. That means increased transistor density, reducing energy consumption.
The Pixel 11 line will use a superior modem designed by MediaTek
Additionally, TSMC's 2nm chips will feature the Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture with the gates surrounding the channels on all four sides. This reduces current leaks and increases the drive current. The latter allows transistors to more quickly change their states from "On" to "Off," improving performance and efficiency.
And don't forget that the Pixel 11 line will be using a MediaTek modem for the first time. The MediaTek M90 modem is more efficient than the Samsung modems previously used, and this should also improve the battery life on the Pixel 11 line.
But what if you're using a Pixel 8, Pixel 9, or Pixel 10 series phone and you're suffering from battery drain? There happens to be a bug listed in the Google Issue Tracker since this past April. The problem is that since the March 2026 update, the CPU on the Google Tensor chip is not able to "sleep."
When an Android phone is stationary, the screen is off and the device is unplugged for a period of time, Android goes into Deep Doze, deferring certain processes. When this happens, the OS tells the Linux kernel that background activity is near zero, and the kernel drops the Tensor CPU down to its lowest operational state.
The Google Issue Tracker shows similar battery problems experienced by other Pixel users. | Image by Google
The Google Issue Tracker reports related to this issue list Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro models and their corresponding "XL" versions. Even in Airplane mode with the screen off, the CPU continuously wakes up, draining the battery.
The Tensor CPU might not get enough shut-eye to work right
With the bug, Android doesn't go into Deep Doze, and, instead, the glitch causes the CPU to constantly wake up. Just like the way you feel when you get up after being woken all night by the baby, your Pixel is tired, the battery is low, and it is cranky. Not given the chance to go into Deep Doze causes the background battery drain that Pixel users are so familiar with.
Uninstalling these apps from your Pixel might help improve your battery life
It has been four months, and Google has yet to fix this issue. Some believe that this is not Google's problem and put the blame on poorly written apps. There are some who say that if you uninstall all of Meta's Android apps (Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp) from your Pixel, the battery life will improve. But there are reports from Pixel users who have tried that and uninstalled all Meta apps only to have their battery drain at 2 percentage points per hour in Airplane mode.
And yet another theory is that a baseband firmware issue causes the modem to stay awake and in a loop that causes the battery to drain. This happens when using a Wi-Fi connection.
Until Google gets around to fixing any of the issues that it is responsible for, you might want to uninstall the "Zuck apps" (the apps from Meta) to see if there is any improvement in your Pixel's battery life. The good news is that the Pixel 11 series is just weeks away from being unveiled.
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