Summary
The latest Pixel Drop slows down charging near the 80% limit, stalling at roughly 76–77%.
It looks like this change is intentional — charging slows to reduce heat and preserve battery health.
You can disable the 80% charge limit to restore faster charging; Google says it’s “optimizing” the feature.
Google’s recent March 2026 Pixel Drop is packed with new features related to Gemini, Magic Cue, At a Glance, and more, but it also includes a battery-related “bug” that appears to be an intentional shift on the tech giant’s part.
According to several Reddit posts (via Android Police/PiunikaWeb), the change appears to be tied to the Pixel’s battery longevity tool, which limits charging to 80 percent. Until now, the feature has charged devices at maximum speed, and stops charging when your device reaches 80 percent.
Following the latest Pixel Drop, some users are reporting that their Pixel smartphones are only charging at roughly 76 or 77 percent, with the final 3 to 4 percent taking a really long time to complete. The change doesn’t seem to be tied to a specific Pixel model and affects every device that supports the Pixel’s Charge Limit Feature, including the recently released Pixel 10a.
Google is likely slowing Pixel charging speeds on purpose
This bug isn’t actually a bug
It looks like this isn’t actually an issue, though. Google seems to have made this software change on purpose to reduce heat and preserve overall Pixel battery health. According to a recent IssueTrack comment from a Google developer, the slower charging speeds near 80% are part of a change to how Charge Limit works.
This behavior is related to the 80% Charge Limit feature. In the current software build, the device charges at normal speeds until it reaches approximately 77%, at which point it transitions to a lower current to reach the final 80% limit. While this may result in slower charging speeds near the limit, it is intended to manage battery health and should not impact normal device usage. We are currently working on optimizing this user experience.
While this makes sense from a battery preservation standpoint, I can see the change being jarring for users that expect their still relatively new Pixel 10 Pro to quickly charge to 80%. In theory, the easiest way to circumvent this change is to disable your Pixel’s charging-limitation feature.
It also looks like Google is “working on optimizing” the feature, though it’s still unclear what that means. Hopefully, an option to keep the Charging Limit on while turning off slow charging near 80%, is added to the Pixel line soon.
Display
1280 x 2856 pixel resolution LTPO OLED at (495 PPI)
RAM
16GB
Storage
128GB
Rear camera
f/1.68 50-megapixel wide, f/1.7 48-megapixel ultrawide, f/2.8 28-megapixel telephoto
Related
Google’s 2026 Pixel feature drop is huge
Expanded Circle to Search, the Now Playing app, a new desktop mode, and more.