Pixel 9A battery drain

b4jutsu

Hello!
I recently got myself a Google Pixel 9a and ran into a problem with very high battery drain.
Mobile data alone uses about 50–60% of the battery. I enabled 4G-only preference, but it didn’t help much.

My use case: Conversations (XMPP), Telegram, browsing, listening to music, and occasional use of AI services. Some apps run in sandboxed Google. I understand that messengers drain the battery anyway, but still - a 5100 mAh battery dropping from 100% to 10% in 4.5 hours is strange.

I’ve heard that this issue happens not only on GrapheneOS, but also on stock firmware across all Google Pixel 9-series devices. But since Google Services are removed here, it should theoretically be better… The problem seems to be the modem.

Has anyone encountered this? How did you solve it? Is it worth expecting Google to fix this issue?

b4jutsu

https://imgur.com/a/rSXpD4G
battery usage screenshot

b4jutsu

Does anyone have any ideas?

Nul1Hymn

I have the exact same battery life results, but on the 9 Pro.

It lasts about 4.5-5 hours. Totally useless.

And I still can't figure out what the problem is. Everything is fine with the stock version.

https://imgur.com/a/lSmpDla

b4jutsu

Nul1Hymn
How much battery does your mobile network consume?

I bought my 9A used and the owner said he first installed GrapheneOS and saw 4-5 hours of SOT, then rolled back to stock and saw the same thing. What's your SOT on stock?

Novalissoide

Nul1Hymn try getting rid of everything MicroG for starters.

Nul1Hymn

b4jutsu https://imgur.com/a/SCkIW8C

Nul1Hymn

Novalissoide
This is not exactly the same MicroG. This particular one is needed for Youtube Revanced

Ilgar

I have the same issue since a month.

Ilgar

Ilgar battery performance is much better in QPR1

Novalissoide

Nul1Hymn well Newpipe is a more lightweight wrapper solution for Youtube, easier on the battery.

schweizer

I do not have this issue on my P9 despite running many messengers and without google.

For me it would be interesting to split up the following activities:

base consumption rate for being online but not receiving messages
per MB consumption rate. I mean if you get sent a 1 TB video every 10 minutes you should not wonder when the battery is empty after 4 h.
usage of the messengers , display on
split the above for both Play Services and websockets.

eryximachus

I also have most hardened or Graphene OS specific messengers. Even obscure ones like Session (use a lot) and Simplex. The only ones I won't run on the phone are the obvious - Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp, which I run on my main iPhone. Battery life for me is typically 2 days.

I only run 2 Google Play Store apps, which I've used for 10+ years and just need in life. But my primary phone is iPhone 17 Pro.

I am very surprised stock Graphene OS is 4-5 hours. I am not very impressed with the 9a, but for $500 it was a good way to test the waters. But if I was going to go ALL IN - I would wait until the 10 Pro is supported and buy that.

I would say your device s defective, and I'd try to save up to buy one new from Google or maybe even wait until next year when the new supplier is announced. Sucks, but it'd be dumb to buy a 9 pro right now with everything around the corner.

Novalissoide

Still in Alpha stage as of writing, but i recommend y'all with power economy complaints to update to the 2025111801 GrapheneOS security preview release. Several users like me are getting remarkable battery improvements from this update, regardless of which Pixel model they use.

Novalissoide

Now 2025112100 release is in beta-stage.

gMan

besides the obvious (background apps), it seems battery drain can be heavily influenced by network connectivity and choice (5g, LTE, etc.) - it might be of help to you folks having issues to share your network prefs

i have no issues on stable GOS, but my case is probably quite unusual - very light usage, phone powered off at night, and the batt is lasting several days, at least 3 i think

Novalissoide

And now 2025112100 is up as Stable.