Find battery drainers with PowerTOP
powertop shows per-process power usage and lets you apply the kernel's recommended power-saving tunables with one command.
Run `sudo powertop` interactively (Tab to the Tunables/Overview tabs), or `sudo powertop --auto-tune` to enable all recommended settings at once.
01Command
Command
$ sudo powertop --auto-tune02What it does
PowerTOP reports the CPU's wakeups per second, which devices keep the machine awake, and which processes are the 'worst offenders'. --auto-tune enables the safe defaults (USB autosuspend, SATA link power management, audio codec power saving), which typically extends battery runtime noticeably on laptops.
03Risk
!Warning: Auto-tune is not persistent across reboots and can be too aggressive for some USB devices (mice, keyboards, LTE dongles may lag); TLP offers the same settings in a persistent, safer configuration.
04Undo
Undo
$ sudo powertop --html=before.html (comparison only); tunables reset on reboot05Sources
- powertop(8) — power consumption diagnosticEvidence: --auto-tune applies recommended power-saving tunables; --html writes a report
- powertop(8) — power consumption diagnosticEvidence: wakeups reporting and tunables interface
Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: System & Settings