my Pixel 10 Pro sometimes it’s hot – like really hot.
Whether I’m playing newly emulated retro games, connecting to Android Auto, or just watching videos, I’m often surprised by how hot Google’s flagship phone is (although, to be fair, my iPhone 17 Pro sometimes it’s so hot). While the frequent heating of my Pixel isn’t ideal in terms of comfort, it’s also bad for the phone’s battery and accelerates its aging, which can degrade the cell’s internal components.
With that in mind, if you want the Pixel to continue to offer decent battery life, it’s important to keep it at least somewhat cool.
Adaptive Charging keeps the Pixel cool and improves battery health
This feature uses artificial intelligence to learn how you charge your phone
There are several ways to accomplish this. First, it’s a good idea to turn off fast charging to prevent overheating (several phone manufacturers allow you to do this, including Samsung), but if you’re like me and a Pixel 10 user, there’s no obvious option to turn off fast charging entirely. Instead, you’ll have to settle for burning Adaptive chargingit charges your phone up to 80% and then charges the remaining 20% usually around the time you unplug it.
For example, if you charge your phone overnight, the last 20% won’t be charged by the time you usually wake up. It sounds a bit like magic, but it works pretty well in my experience. The idea is that this reduces the time your battery spends at high voltage, which is a major contributor to lithium-ion battery degradation. At the same time, it keeps your phone battery nice and cool. Go to to enable this feature Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Charging Optimization > Adaptive Charging.
Adaptive Battery limits the Pixel’s performance and keeps it frozen
Sometimes it can cause problems, but it is rare
Another option is to enable the AI-powered feature Adaptive Battery. This setting monitors your phone’s usage to continuously optimize how apps use the battery, limiting your smartphone’s overall performance to save battery and keep your phone under constant heavy load. In my experience, the Pixel 10 Pro does a pretty good job of figuring out which apps need the extra power, but it doesn’t always get it right, and on a few occasions I’ve experienced lag and the entire phone locking up. Go here to find the option Settings > Battery > Battery Saver > Adaptive Batterythen select Active.
With all that in mind, in some cases, if certain apps are draining the battery too much and causing the Pixel to overheat, it might make sense to take matters into your own hands. To do this, you need to verify your phone Battery usage report. Go here to find the diagram Settings > Battery > Battery usage. Now take a look at which apps are using the most battery life on your device and do what you can to limit their usage.
In my case Open the camerathe open-source alternative to the Pixel camera app I covered recently is the biggest battery drain, but that’s about it. Next, Android Auto and Google Home are two apps that I use all the time and can’t really use. For most people, manually restricting the use of specific apps isn’t really a very realistic option.
As a last resort, try turning off Allow Background Usage
This is probably not a good idea for most applications
If you want to go a step further, you can turn it off Allow background usage to disable real-time updates and save battery life. You can find this setting below Settings > Battery > Battery usagethen tap the app that uses the most battery. Then you will see Allow background usage at the bottom. I don’t use this feature because the tradeoff isn’t worth it to me, but if you have a game you play often or a social media platform that drains a lot of battery, it might be worth turning it on to see if it makes the Pixel run a little cooler.
Even if you change these settings, the Pixel will still run hot
It’s worth noting that even when you do all of this, the Pixel is still likely to get warm at times — which is kind of inevitable when you’re actually using your smartphone. In addition, even with changes to all these parameters, you can only extend the life of the battery and, in turn, its health by a few percentage points in a few years. Still, if you’re looking for simple ways to keep your phone a little cooler, try the settings above.
