The more you use your ChromeOS device, the more the battery drains, so it's natural to worry about your battery's longevity. An unhealthy battery will hold less of a charge than a battery in newer condition. And, the longer you plug your Chromebook into power and the more you recharge it, the higher the chance the health can dip faster.

The good news is that if you want to check battery health on ChromeOS, there are a few ways to do it, similar to the process on some of the best Windows laptops. You can use the built-in Diagnostics app, the developer shell, or run battery tests or an app from the Google Play Store like AccuBattery.

For accurate results, please charge your Chromebook to 100% first and disconnect from power right before starting these tests.

How to check battery health on Chromebook with the Diagnostics app

For most people, the easiest way to check the battery health on a Chromebook is in the built-in Diagnostics app, which will run tests in the background and let you know if your battery has an issue. The app also shows you the size of your battery, the cycle count, the health, and the current power being consumed.

  1. Open the ChromeOS launcher by clicking on the circular icon in the lower left corner of your screen.
  2. Type Diagnostics.
    ChromeOS looking
  3. Pick the first result.
  4. In the app that opens, click System in the sidebar.
    The ChromeOS Diagnostics app
  5. Look under Battery, and you'll see the battery information, the cycle count, an estimated time remaining, and the current being pulled.
  6. To perform the battery test, click Run Discharge test. You can keep using your Chromebook.
  7. Wait a few seconds for the test to complete.

ChromeOS will show a Passed or Fail result, and you can click Learn more to read the results. According to Google, if your results show that the rate of charge and discharge is low, there may be a problem with the battery or charging port. In this case, you'll want to contact your Chromebook manufacturer and try to get support.

How to manually check battery health on Chromebook with Crosh

More experienced ChromeOS users can turn to the Crosh developer shell to manually check battery health. This requires typing out lines of text, similar to what you'd do in the Command Prompt on Windows, so it's not for eveyrone. Here's what to do.

  1. Hit Ctrl + Alt + T on your keyboard to open the terminal app.
  2. Type battery_test.
  3. Hit the Enter key. If you see an error about no test length specified, ignore it.
    ChromeOS Battery test in Crosh
  4. Your Chromebook will perform the battery test. Wait 300 seconds (or 5 minutes) for it to complete. You can keep using your Chromebook if you'd like for more accurate results based on your current workload.

Once this test completes, you'll get a battery life estimate and a readout of how much of the battery was drained in those 5 minutes. For more information on your battery, you can also type battery_firmware info into the command line to see the battery's manufacturer, the serial number, chemistry, capacity, and cycle count.

How to check battery health on Chromebook with Accu Battery

The two methods we've mentioned so far use official tools built into ChromeOS. There's also an Android app that can also read out your battery levels and health. Just keep in mind it might not be the most accurate because Android apps run under emulation in ChromeOS,

  1. Open the Google Play Store.
  2. In the search box, search for Accu Battery.
  3. Click Install.
    The Accu Battery listing in the Google PLay Store
  4. Wait for the app to install, then click Open in the listing.
  5. Click to swipe through the informational screens.
  6. Wait for the app to calibrate your battery.
  7. When finished, click Continue
    The first setup steps on Accu Battery
  8. Click Finish
  9. You'll see an estimate of how long your battery will last, along with battery current, battery usage, and voltage.
    Accu Battery readouts
  10. The more you use your Chromebook, the more information the app will give.

The cool part of Accu Battery is that it adds a notification to the ChromeOS Quick Settings area that lets you see battery information. This is quite useful if you're paranoid about battery life and health. It will also read out the milliamps being discharged and other estimates for battery life based on your screen time, so it's great for monitoring your battery's long-term health.

So those are the three ways you can check your battery health on a Chromebook. For most people, the easiest way is to use the ChromeOS Diagnostics app. Still, there's also the more sophisticated method of using the developer shell, along with a third-party app like AccuBattery. And if your battery is on the way out and you want to replace your device, there are a lot of great Chromebooks or ChromeOS tablets to choose from.