How to get the battery percentage back on iPhone

Being able to see your iPhone battery percentage right in the status bar is incredibly useful. You can keep an eye on it throughout the day if you’re getting low and need to top up.

The standard battery icon gives you a rough idea of where your iPhone stands. But instantly seeing the exact battery percentage number can give you peace of mind. It’s useful seeing the precise number without pulling down Control Center or checking a battery widget, wherever you are.

For those of you with real battery anxiety, you can even add a widget to your Lock Screen and Home Screen. I’ll show you how.

How to show battery percentage on iPhone

The iPhone had the option to show an exact battery percentage for many, many years — until 2017, when Apple introduced the iPhone X. The new phone crammed the clock, the icons for cellular and Wi-Fi signals, and the battery icon around a wide, black notch at the top of the screen. Apple decided there wasn’t enough room in the small battery icon to legibly show the battery percentage written out numerically.

The setting reappeared in 2022 with iOS 16, and many rejoiced — except for those with an iPhone XR, 11, 12 mini or 13 mini, where, inexplicably, the setting didn’t show up. Apple decided that big phones with an all-screen design could show the battery percentage, but not smaller phones.

At some point later, though, the setting reappeared for everybody. Hurrah! Here’s how you can get it back.

Table of contents: How to show battery percentage on iPhone

1. Show the numbers in iPhone’s status bar
2. Add a battery percentage widget to the iPhone Lock Screen
3. Add a battery percentage widget on the Home Screen
4. Tips for extending iPhone battery life

Show the numbers in iPhone’s status bar

Turning the iPhone battery percentage back on is easy. Just go to Settings > Battery and turn on Battery Percentage.

If you’re upgrading from an older, rectangular-screened iPhone that used to show the battery percentage, you don’t need to do anything! The setting carries over if you preserved your settings through iCloud backup or iPhone-to-iPhone setup ever since then, as battery percentage never went away on iPhones with a rectangular screen.

But for others, the feature is off by default. You have to turn it back on to use this feature.

Add a battery percentage widget to the iPhone Lock Screen

If you suffer from real range anxiety, you can add an iPhone battery percentage widget to your Lock Screen. Keep a closer eye on your charge with a bigger, more legible number.

To do so, tap and hold on your Lock Screen and tap Customize, then select your Lock Screen. Tap the empty space below the clock and tap the Batteries widget. Then, tap on the battery widget, disable Automatic, and under Devices, select your iPhone.

Read more about how you can customize your iPhone’s Lock Screen.

Add a battery percentage widget to the Home Screen

You also can add a battery widget with the percentage to your iPhone Home Screen or Today View — that spot with widgets over to the left. Tap and hold on an empty spot on your Home Screen, tap Edit in the upper right and tap Add Widget. Scroll down and tap the Batteries widget. Drop it wherever you like, or put it on top of another widget to make a scrollable stack.

Tips for extending iPhone battery life

If you’re obsessing over your iPhone battery percentage, you likely care about not running out of juice. Luckily, you can take multiple actions that will make your iPhone last longer. Using Lower Power mode is the most obvious way to extend your iPhone’s battery life. But you have other options as well, like dimming your iPhone’s display and turning off Background App Refresh. Find out more in our how-to, “10 best ways to actually save iPhone battery life.”

We originally published this article on how to show iPhone battery percentage on August 11, 2022. We updated the information.