WireGuard on mobile - is it really that battery friendly?

U Urgency ·

WireGuard on mobile - is it really that battery friendly?

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Urgency

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so i talked about vpn stuff before, i usually use openvpn or ikev2 but now everyone's obsessed with wireguard on phones. tried it a few times and yeah its faster and simpler tbh but i feel like it's sucking my battery more than they claim. they say its lightweight and all that but my phone dies quicker when i leave it on all day. anyone actually tested this? is the battery saving thing a myth or am i messing up? wanna use it for streaming and browsing but idk if i can handle charging every 2 hours lol. wondering if you guys have seen any proper tests or just roll with it and ignore the drain
 
if you wanna save battery with wireguard, turn off the auto-reconnect or keepalive pings. those keep the VPN active even when you're just idling. most ppl don't test that part and blame the vpn itself.
 
yeah, exactly, people forget to check the keepalive and auto-reconnect settings, smh, that stuff can eat up battery more than the vpn itself.
 
Use a tool like Netdata to monitor actual power usage in real time. It'll show if wireguard or any process is draining your battery more than it should. sometimes it's just bad settings, not the tech.
 
not sure obsession is justified but here's a trick: disable the persistent keepalive if you don't need constant reconnection, it can cut down battery drain. also, check your app's background activity and restrict it if possible. fwiw, always test with a power monitor app like Battery Historian or AccuBattery to see what's really eating up juice. stay sharp, keep those tests real.
 
disagree - last month i used wireguard all day for work and streaming, and honestly it was way better on battery than openvpn or ikev2. maybe it's ur phone model or specific settings? try disabling keepalive and see if it helps.
 
Really? restricting background activity could help but is it enough? unless ur actually measuring power draw with something like Netdata or an app profiler, you might just be guessing.
 
Haha, sounds like your phone's turning into a snack-eating monster. try turning off persistent keepalive if you don't need it, that alone can save some juice.
 
I swear mine actually got worse battery life when I first switched to wireguard, like 15% drain in an hour while just browsing. then I found out it was the persistent keepalive setting and turned it off. suddenly better. maybe try that? lol
 
Different angle: I remember when I first tried wireguard on mobile, I was ready to write it off as a battery hog but turns out I was just leaving it on all the time and forgetting about other apps draining juice too. lol. sometimes it's not just the VPN but the whole phone ecosystem misbehaving.
 
ok so turn off the VPN when not using it, that helped me save battery. Do you notice if it drains more during certain activities like streaming or gaming?
 
I noticed running WireGuard uses less battery than I expected, maybe around 10-15% per day. But if I leave it on constantly, it does drain faster during video calls or streaming. Do you see the same?
 
actually, I think WireGuard is pretty lightweight even during those activities. If you're seeing more drain, it might be your phone's background apps or something else. Just keep it on and see if disabling some apps helps, ymmv.
 
thanks guys for the tips. turning off when not needed makes sense, might try that. i haven't really noticed a big drain during gaming or streaming but maybe i need to check if background apps are messing with it. will keep testing and see
 
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