# Does a running app drain your battery?

> GPS uses battery on any run, but syncing, ads, and background network traffic add to it. Steady Pace makes no network connections, so it runs light: GPS and audio, nothing else.

A run tracker uses battery, mostly for GPS, but a lot of apps spend more than they need to on syncing, ads, and background traffic. Steady Pace makes no network connections, so its power use is essentially GPS and audio.

**The short answer:** Some, mostly because of GPS, which any run tracker needs and which is the single biggest draw during a run. Beyond that, many apps spend extra battery on things unrelated to tracking: syncing to servers, loading ads, and keeping network connections alive in the background. Steady Pace does none of that. It makes zero network connections, so its power use comes down to GPS and a little audio. You cannot avoid GPS on a GPS run, but you can avoid the network activity that other apps add on top of it.

## What uses power on a run

The largest cost is GPS. Fixing your position continuously keeps a power-hungry sensor busy for the whole run, and that is true of every honest run tracker. There is no way around it if you want accurate pace and distance. The screen is next, if you keep it on to watch a number. With eyes-free pacing, the screen can stay dark, which saves power. After that come the extras that have nothing to do with tracking.

Cellular data is expensive in battery terms, especially when the radio is hunting for signal or an app is retrying a sync. Ads draw power to fetch and render. Background analytics and syncing keep the phone awake when it could be resting. None of that contributes to tracking your run; it only adds to the battery cost.

## Why Steady Pace runs light

Steady Pace makes no network connections, so it skips syncing, ad loading, and background traffic. After GPS, there is little left drawing power beyond generating the pace tone and spoken splits, which are cheap. Holding pace by ear also lets you pocket the phone with the screen off, because the tone tells you your pace without a glance. A dark screen saves more battery than most people expect. If you want to stretch a long run further, airplane mode rests the cellular radio entirely while GPS keeps working.

| Power draw | Steady Pace | A connected app |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GPS | Yes, unavoidable | Yes, unavoidable |
| Screen | Can stay off, you listen | Often on, you watch |
| Syncing and background traffic | None | Common |
| Ads | None | On many free tiers |

GPS is the unavoidable cost of tracking any run, and because Steady Pace makes no network connections, it adds almost nothing to that beyond the pace tone and spoken splits.

- [Airplane mode](https://steadypace.ca/blog/running-app-for-airplane-mode): Rest the radio, keep GPS, save battery.
- [Pace without looking](https://steadypace.ca/blog/hold-your-pace-without-looking-at-your-watch): Eyes-free means the screen can stay dark.
- [Works offline](https://steadypace.ca/blog/running-app-that-works-offline): No syncing to keep the phone awake.

**Does Steady Pace use a lot of battery?**

Its main draw is GPS, which every run tracker needs. Beyond that it is light, because it makes no network connections, so there is no syncing, ads, or background traffic adding to the cost.

**Why does GPS use so much battery?**

Fixing your position continuously keeps a demanding sensor active for the entire run. It is the price of accurate pace and distance, and it applies to any honest GPS run tracker.

**How can I make my run tracker last longer?**

Keep the screen off when you can, which eyes-free pacing makes easy, and use airplane mode to rest the cellular radio while GPS keeps working. Choosing an app that does not sync or show ads removes the rest.

**Does running offline save battery?**

It helps, because an app that is not syncing or holding a connection open is not keeping the phone awake for that. Steady Pace never connects, so it never spends power on it.


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Source: https://steadypace.ca/blog/does-a-running-app-drain-your-battery
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/steady-pace/id6773682525