Turn Off This iOS 18 Feature for Improving iPhone Battery Life

Turn off this iOS 18 feature to improve iPhone battery life. Disabling Apple Intelligence can help extend battery performance.

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Every new iPhone introduces a key feature, and for the iPhone 16, it’s Apple Intelligence. While it brings AI-powered tools, it hasn’t felt fully polished since launch. Some improvements have been made, but one thing became clear—disabling it had a noticeable impact on battery life.

When I decided to turn off this iOS 18 feature for improving iPhone battery life, I saw a significant difference. My phone lasted longer throughout the day, requiring fewer charge cycles. If battery life is a priority for you, disabling Apple Intelligence might be a simple way to get more out of your iPhone.

Apple Intelligence Is Draining Your Battery Fast

For artificial intelligence to work well, it needs to process data on your device while sometimes relying on servers for extra power. Many companies use this approach to keep AI responses fast and accurate.

However, running AI on your phone requires extra processing, which can drain battery life. It also needs powerful hardware to function smoothly. That’s why Apple upgraded the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with the A18 processor and 8GB of RAM. These upgrades help support AI features, as highlighted in our iPhone 16 Plus review.

Apple Intelligence adds about 3GB of data to your storage, containing AI models that are constantly used to generate results. One of the most noticeable features is Notification Summaries which condenses notifications into short, easy-to-read text. It can even analyze images and summarize long messages into just a couple of lines. While this is helpful, it comes at the cost of battery life.

After turning off Apple Intelligence my iPhone’s battery life improved by around 25%. Before, I had to charge my phone twice a day, but now I only need about one and a half charge cycles.

For reference one charge cycle means using your battery from 0% to 100%, whether in a single charge or over multiple smaller charges.

The screenshots below compare two days—one with Apple Intelligence turned on and one without it. To spot the biggest differences, look at the colored bars, battery percentage, and screen-on-time on the right.

In the first screenshot (with Apple Intelligence enabled), the battery drained faster. Second screenshot (with it disabled) shows about 20% less power usage even though I used camera for roughly same time on both days.

I spent a few days in February 2025 testing these modifications. While the second screenshot was taken this week, the first was taken back then.

Do I Really Need Apple Intelligence?

If you’ve been using Apple Intelligence, the most noticeable feature is likely notification summaries. While some users report mixed results, I found them to be accurate about nine out of ten times.

However, I use my iPhone primarily for recording videos for my social media pages, and keeping my battery alive is more important to me than AI-generated summaries. I’d rather have my phone powered and ready than see the dreaded red battery symbol at 10%. So, no—I haven’t really missed Apple Intelligence.

Its overall impact on my daily phone experience has been minimal. In fact, the only thing I might miss is the new Siri animation.

Battery life has improved over the years thanks to software optimizations, but if you need a few extra hours, turning off Apple Intelligence is a simple switch that makes a noticeable difference.

FAQ: Turn Off This iOS 18 Feature for Improving iPhone Battery Life

1. How do I turn off Apple Intelligence on my iPhone?

You can disable Apple Intelligence by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Apple Intelligence and toggling it off. This will stop AI-based features like Notification Summaries from running in the background.

2. Will turning off Apple Intelligence affect other iPhone features?

Disabling Apple Intelligence mainly affects AI-powered tools like Notification Summaries and text/image analysis. Standard Siri functions, messaging, and other iOS 18 features will still work as usual.

3. How much battery life can I save by turning it off?

In my experience, disabling Apple Intelligence improved my iPhone’s battery life by around 25%, reducing the number of times I had to recharge my phone each day.

4. Does Apple Intelligence take up a lot of storage?

Yes, Apple Intelligence adds roughly 3GB of extra data to store AI models that help process on-device tasks. These files are constantly accessed, which can impact performance and battery life.