How to charge your AirPods Max and find out about battery life

Find out how to charge your AirPods Max and get longer battery life.

To charge your AirPods Max, plug the USB-C or the Lightning cable that came with your AirPods Max into the bottom of the right earphone, then plug the other end of the cable into a USB charger or port.

You can use these types of cable to charge your AirPods Max, depending on which model you have:

  • For AirPods Max equipped with a USB-C port, you can use a USB-C to USB-C cable or a USB-C to USB cable.

  • For AirPods Max equipped with a Lightning port, you can use a USB-C to Lightning Cable or a USB to Lightning Cable.

AirPods Max charging while stored inside of Smart Case.

To charge your AirPods Max inside the Smart Case, align the cutout on the case with the Lightning port on the headphones. When you aren’t using your AirPods Max, keep them in the Smart Case to put them into an ultra-low-power mode to preserve battery charge.

Find out about battery life

When the battery charge of your AirPods Max is low, you’ll receive a notification on the screen of your iPhone or iPad. You receive notifications when the charge is at 20, 10 and 5 per cent remaining.

You also hear a tone when the battery charge is low. You hear the tone once when the battery charge is at ten per cent, and a second time just before AirPods Max turn off.

Here’s what you can expect:

  • Your AirPods Max can get up to 20 hours of listening time, talk time or film playback when you have Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio turned on.1

  • If you charge your AirPods Max for five minutes, you get around 1.5 hours of listening time.2

  • If you put your AirPods Max down and leave them stationary for 5 minutes, they will go into a low-power mode to preserve battery charge. After 72 stationary hours out of the Smart Case, your AirPods Max go into a lower power mode that turns off Bluetooth and Find My to preserve battery charge further.

  • If you put your AirPods Max in the Smart Case when you aren’t using them, they will go into a low power mode immediately to preserve battery charge. After 18 hours in the Smart Case, your AirPods Max will go into an ultra-low-power mode that will turn off Bluetooth and Find My and maximise battery life.

Check the charge status

The status light on the right earphone 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 or equal to 95 per cent remaining, or amber if the charge has less than 95 per cent remaining.

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 or equal to 15 per cent remaining, or amber if the charge has less than 15 per cent remaining.

You can also check the charge status of your AirPods Max with your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

On your iPhone

AirPods Max battery level in the Settings app on iPhone.

Hold your AirPods Max close to your device. Wait a few seconds or press the noise control button to see the charge status of your AirPods Max.

Batteries widget on an iPhone Home Screen.

You can also check the charge status of your AirPods Max with the Batteries widget on your iOS device.

On your Mac

  1. Take your AirPods Max out of the case.

  2. Click the Bluetooth iconNo alt supplied for Image in the menu bar.

  3. Hover the pointer over your AirPods Max in the menu.

  1. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2020 using preproduction AirPods Max and software paired with iPhone 12 Pro Max units and pre-release software. Testing consisted of full AirPods Max battery discharge while playing one of the following: a music playlist consisting of 358 unique audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store (256 Kbps AAC encoding), a mobile phone call or a 2-hour 23-minute film purchased from the iTunes Store until the AirPods Max stopped playback. Volume was set to 50%, Active Noise Cancellation on, and Spatial Audio on and active only during film playback. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage and many other factors.

  2. Testing conducted by Apple in November 2020 using preproduction AirPods Max and software paired with iPhone 12 Pro Max units and pre-release software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store (256 Kbps AAC encoding). Volume was set to 50%, Active Noise Cancellation on, and Spatial Audio on but not active. Five-Minute charge testing conducted with drained AirPods Max that were charged for five minutes, then audio playback was started until the AirPods Max stopped playback. Battery life depends on device settings, environment, usage and many other factors.

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