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Google Chrome killing battery in MacBook Air?

I have 2013 Mac Book Air 13", 1.7 GHz with 256GB disk and 8 GB RAM. Yesterday I was running the machine for the first time in about a month and I had just upgraded to 10.9.2. I fired up Google Chrome - the latest version and my browser of choice - and immediately noticed the battery drain. I checked under the battery icon (running under battery power) and found that it listed Google Chrome as drawing more power than any other application running (something like 392 in the left column and 44 in the right column). My battery dropped to nearly 80% within about 30 minutes of use and was down to 50% by the time I finished up 90 minutes after I started. At various points I'd switch between Chrome and Safari 7.0.2 and the battery usage would decline significantly. Is this a known problem either with the MB Air or with Chrome? I don't notice it on my Mac Book Pro, late 2011 running the same OS.

Thanks for any information you may have on this.

P.S. Chrome was the only foreground application running. A few startup apps but nothing that showed any significant battery draw.

iPad (4th gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 7.0.2, 2010 Hexacore, i7 MBP, i7 imac

Posted on Mar 25, 2014 5:48 PM

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

141,296 points

Posted on Mar 25, 2014 5:53 PM

Chrome is a notorious resource hog that infests a Mac with a multitude of obscurely named, burdensome processes running at a privileged level in a manner not unlike a virus, if such a thing were to exist.

Smart Mac users don't use Chrome.

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16 replies

May 5, 2015 10:31 AM in response to Marc Feldesman

I noticed the issue on my 2013 11" MacBook Air. I only have 45 loadcycles on the battery and I would only use Safari, and my battery would routinely hold between 7-9 hours battery life. After a recent reinstall since my safari did not allow flash plugins and I was too lazy to install them I used chrome for mundane flash-requiring websites. While having Chrome open, my battery would show 3-4 hours battery life at full charge, and it would deplete 50% in less than 2 hours. I closed chrome this morning and suddenly my full battery is showing over 8 hours battery life. Chrome seems to be singlehandedly killing battery life. I am glad it was that, I thought my mac battery suddenly started acting up!

Google Chrome killing battery in MacBook Air?