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There seems to be two typical criteria for maximizing battery life of an iPad. One is that getting the charging percentage near 0 or 100% is to be avoided by maintaining the charge between the 20%-80% range. The other criteria is to just keep the iPad connected at all times, so that the battery doesnt charge or recharge at all (or at least stays in the 99%-100% range). I would like to know wich one is the correct aproach.

Note that the battery health option that Apple mentions to justify that we don't need to pay attention to charging is not present in some iPads.

Just in case it's useful, I'm asking about an 2021 iPad 9th gen. Which doesn't have the battery health option nor I ever saw it stop at 80%. Also take into account that even when we are told not to overthink these things, there are places in the world where it's 10x more expensive to pay for a battery replacement, so that advice does not apply.

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The optimal approach is to stay in that 20%-80% range as you indicate. However, in practice the difference between that and simply leaving the iPad plugged in at all times is really, really small.

The iPad does not keep charging at the same speed when it hits 100% - so just keeping it plugged in is not going to "overheat" the battery" or "quickly deteriorate" the battery. The iPad will trickle-charge at that point. The iPad even has a feature built-in to adjust maximum capacity if you always keep it plugged in so that it starts trickle-charging earlier in order to not keep the battery 100% charged.

Consider the amount of effort it takes to constantly monitor the battery charge and disconnect/reconnect the iPad, it is simply not worth it for most people.

Even though you mention that you live in a place in the world where battery replacements are 10x more expensive, I still doubt that it would be worth the time and effort to actually manage charging that way. Is spending hours and hours on hovering over your iPad really worth it, if you can extend the life-span of the battery with 5% for example.

For almost everyone, I would say that you do not need to take care of the "correct approach" yourself. Just plug in the iPad, and it will automatically take care of charging itself.

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  • I know what apple says officially, but some iPads, even new ones, dont have any battery health option, and don't stop at 80%.
    – Martin Ventura
    Mar 8 at 15:42
  • I have adapted the answer after your edit to take into account that battery replacements alledgely are 10x more expensive in Argentina.
    – jksoegaard
    Mar 9 at 7:09

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