Like many, you probably charge your precious smartphone every day, or almost. But do you know how much this essential operation costs? We did the calculation. And it will surprise you…
Since our precious smartphones run on electricity, they need to be recharged regularly. More or less often, depending on their use and the capacity of their battery. And as harmless as it may be, this recharge has a cost, because the electricity drawn from the mains socket is not free. Especially when you repeat the operation every day and with several devices!
The calculation is not very complicated. It depends on the amount of electricity needed to fill the battery. A quantity that is measured in Wh (watt-hour, the unit of electrical consumption) and which is directly derived from the capacity of the accumulator, expressed in mAh (milliampere-hour, the unit of electrical charge). The greater the capacity of the battery, the more electricity will be needed to fill it, and the more the recharging will cost – just like when you fill the tank of a vehicle! And the speed of recharging does not matter: fast chargers are mainly used to speed up the operation, by quickly providing a large amount of energy. But this quantity is only linked to the battery.
In practice, most current smartphones have batteries with a capacity between 3000 and 5000 mAh. And it takes about 4 Wh to charge 1000 mAh, taking into account the inevitable losses. Thus, it takes about 13 Wh to charge an iPhone 14 (3300 mAh battery), 17 Wh for a Google Pixel 7 (4300 mAh battery) and 20 Wh for a Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 (5000 mAh battery). Even if they are deliberately very rounded to simplify the calculations, these figures provide essential information: recharging a smartphone consumes little electricity. Really very little.
And this consumption is even more impressive when compared to its cost. Indeed, since the regulated electricity rate in France in May 2024 is €0.2516 including tax per kWh in the basic option (€0.2700 during peak hours and €0.2068 during off-peak hours), consuming 1000 Wh (i.e. 1 kWh) comes to 25.16 cents. A consumption of 10 Wh (i.e. 100 times less) comes to 0.2516 cents. Taking our examples of smartphones, we can estimate the unit charging costs of 0.3271 cents for an iPhone 14, 0.4277 cents for a Pixel 7 and 0.5032 cents for models with a 5000 mAh battery like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. Ridiculous!
And assuming that we recharge these devices every day, the annual cost remains very low: €1.19 for an iPhone 14 and rather €1.56 per year for a Pixel 7, which also needs to be recharged often. But the models with “large” batteries are more economical, because they last longer. In any case, we remain well below the €2 mark per year and per smartphone. And therefore below €10 per year for a family with two children. Really very little compared to the services provided!