Apple's AirPods Max headphones offer around 20 hours of listening time or talk time on a single charge when you have Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio turned on. If you pop ‌‌AirPods Max‌ in their Smart Case for five minutes, you can get enough charge for around 1.5 hours of listening time.

AirPods Max Smart Case Battery Life Feature
During use, you'll hear a tone when your ‌‌AirPods Max‌ battery charge is 10%, and a second tone just before they run out. But you don't have to wait for these tones to know how much charge they have remaining. Here are several ways that you can keep a closer eye on the battery life of your ‌AirPods Max‌.

How to Check AirPods Max Charge Status

The status light on the right ear cup shows the charge status of your ‌AirPods Max‌. If you press the noise control button when your ‌AirPods Max‌ are connected to power, the status light will turn green if the charge has more than 95 percent remaining, or amber if the charge has less than or equal to 95 percent remaining.

airpods max digital crown
If you press the noise control button when your ‌AirPods Max‌ aren't connected to power, the status light will turn green if the charge has more than 15 percent remaining, or amber if the charge has less than or equal to 15 percent remaining.

How to Check AirPods Max Charge Status on iPhone or iPad

When you take ‌AirPods Max‌ out of the Smart Case, their charge status‌‌ should appear on your iPhone's or iPad's screen. You can also check the charge status of your ‌‌AirPods Max‌‌ using the Batteries widget in your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ or ‌iPad‌'s Today View, accessed by swiping right on the Lock screen or on your Home screen's first screen of apps.

AirPods-max
If you don't have it installed already, you can add the Batteries widget manually. To do so, enter the Today view, scroll to the bottom of the column of widgets and press the Edit button. Then simply tap the green plus button in the list next to Batteries and tap Done in the upper right of the screen.

siri
If you're a fan of Siri and you're wearing your ‌AirPods‌ Max, you can always ask the virtual assistant "How is the battery life of my ‌AirPods‌ Max?" and you should get an answer.

How to Check AirPods Max Charge Status on Apple Watch

You can check the battery level of your ‌AirPods‌ Max from your wrist, whether they're paired with your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ or directly with your Apple Watch.

airpods max charge status apple watch
To do so, bring up the Control Center on your Apple Watch: Swipe up on a watch face, or when in an app, press the bottom edge of the screen then drag up the Control Center. Then tap the Apple Watch battery icon, indicated by a percentage. The battery level of ‌AirPods Max‌ will be displayed as a ring below the Apple Watch battery percentage.

Related Roundup: AirPods Max
Buyer's Guide: AirPods Max (Neutral)
Related Forum: AirPods

Popular Stories

iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Johny Srouji

Apple Chip Chief Johny Srouji Could Be Next to Go as Exodus Continues

Sunday December 7, 2025 10:41 am PST by
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...
google pixel 10

Switching Between iPhone and Android Will Get Easier With New Apple and Google Collaboration

Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta. Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Intel Inside iPhone Feature

Apple's Return to Intel Rumored to Extend to iPhone

Friday December 5, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Intel is expected to begin supplying some Mac and iPad chips in a few years, and the latest rumor claims the partnership might extend to the iPhone. In a research note with investment firm GF Securities this week, obtained by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu said he and his colleagues "now expect" Intel to reach a supply deal with Apple for at least some non-pro iPhone chips starting in 2028....