Factsheet
Original author Intel
Release 2007
Stable release 2.15
/ September 29, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-09-29)
/ September 29, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-09-29)
Original author Intel
Release 2007
Stable release 2.15
/ September 29, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-09-29)
/ September 29, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-09-29)
Red Hat
docs.redhat.com › en › documentation › red_hat_enterprise_linux › 8 › html › monitoring_and_managing_system_status_and_performance › managing-power-consumption-with-powertop_monitoring-and-managing-system-status-and-performance
Chapter 16. Managing power consumption with PowerTOP | Monitoring and managing system status and performance | Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 8 | Red Hat Documentation
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 uses version 2.x of PowerTOP. ... Laptops should run on battery power when running the powertop command. ... Let the calibration finish without interacting with the machine during the process. Calibration takes time because the process performs various tests, cycles through brightness levels and switches devices on and off. When the calibration process is completed, PowerTOP starts as normal. Let it run for approximately an hour to collect data.
ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.org › title › Powertop
Powertop - ArchWiki
October 25, 2025 - Install the powertop package. ... In interactive mode, you can modify recommended settings in the Tunables and WakeUp tabs. This allows you to change settings and monitor how they affect your power consumption in the Overview tab.
linux - How to use Powertop - Stack Overflow
I am working on power consumption anaysis of different machines we have in our lab ( servers, power pcs). I came to know about powertop for power analysis. till now, I have used it on my laptop onl... More on stackoverflow.com
Reduce power consumption with powertop - User Customizations - Unraid
Powertop [Support auf Deutsch] Powertop is an Intel tool (yes, works for AMD, too) to check power consumption states of sata, pcie, usb, etc devices. You can download powertop as follows, then restart your server and it will be automatically installed: mkdir /boot/extra cd /boot/extra wget https:... More on forums.unraid.net
Lower power consumption with powertop on InfinitiBook 14 Gen 7
I'd recommend looking into TLP, it applies all the optimizations that powertop suggests and more. There's plenty of other things you can do to cut down on power usage, check out https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management . On my previous laptop, https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/auto-cpufreq did quite a lot to optimize power usage as well. I suspect that it might fight with TCC to some degree if you run both though. More on reddit.com
Puzzled by TLP/powertop performance
I made a similar test and get the exact opposite result: tlp saves power compared to no tool (didn't test powertop, contrary to popular belief powertop is not a power saving tool). My guess is that your tlp is not properly configured, so it ends up being counterproductive. The default config is not always the most appropriate. However Intel power saving works very well out of the box under Linux, so your best bet is probably to just disable everything. 3W idle is very good. More on reddit.com
Videos
08:12
Power management on Arch Linux using Powertop & TLD - YouTube
07:25
Saving Power on a Linux Laptop - YouTube
20:19
Linux Power Management & Monitoring with TLP & Powertop - YouTube
04:15
powertop - Power Consumption Diagnosis Tool - Linux TUI - YouTube
02:08
Increase Battery Life of Linux Laptops using PowerTop - YouTube
02:04
How to install PowerTOP on Ubuntu 17.04 - YouTube
Reddit
reddit.com › r/archlinux › how to use powertop?
r/archlinux on Reddit: How to use powertop?
December 29, 2024 -
I've been using some software to optimize my battery life (powertop, auto-cpufreq and power-profile-daemon). I've found that using powertop gives me an additionnal 2h of battery life when I calibrate. The problem is that powertop isn't a service and I'm not sure how to use it.
Auto-cpufreq or power-profiles-daemon always runs as a service but powertop can't. If I reboot after a calibration, I lose it and go back to my old autonomy.
How is it supposed to be used?
OneUptime
oneuptime.com › home › blog › how to use powertop for power consumption analysis on ubuntu
How to Use PowerTOP for Power Consumption Analysis on Ubuntu
March 2, 2026 - From the interactive interface, you can identify specific processes that use disproportionate power: # Run in background while normal workload runs sudo powertop --time=120 --csv=/tmp/workload-power.csv # Check which processes are in the top power consumers head -50 /tmp/workload-power.csv | grep Process
GitHub
github.com › fenrus75 › powertop
GitHub - fenrus75/powertop: The Linux PowerTOP tool -- please post patches to the mailing list instead of using github pull requests · GitHub
June 2, 2026 - PowerTOP must be run as root. When invoked without arguments it starts in interactive mode, which resembles top. Use the Tab and Shift-Tab keys to navigate between the Overview, Idle stats, Frequency stats, Device stats, Tunables, and WakeUp tabs.
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Ubuntu
manpages.ubuntu.com › manpages › xenial › man8 › powertop.8.html
Ubuntu Manpage: powertop - a power consumption and power management diagnosis tool.
When invoking powertop without arguments powertop starts in interactive mode. --auto-tune Set all tunable options to their good setting without interaction. -c, --calibrate Runs powertop in calibration mode. When running on battery, powertop can track power consumption as well as system activity.
Red Hat
docs.redhat.com › en › documentation › red_hat_enterprise_linux › 7 › html › power_management_guide › powertop
2.2. PowerTOP | Power Management Guide | Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 7 | Red Hat Documentation
However, userland processes that send wakeups are more easily managed. First, determine whether this service or application needs to run at all on this system. If not, simply deactivate it. To turn off an old System V service permanently, run: ... If the trace looks like it is repeating itself, then it probably is a busy loop. Fixing such bugs typically requires a code change in that component. As seen in Figure 2.1, “PowerTOP in Operation”, total power consumption and the remaining battery life are displayed, if applicable.
Greencompute
greencompute.uk › References › Power_Measurement › powertop_users_guide_201412.pdf pdf
User’s Guide Kristen C. Accardi kristen.c.accardi@intel.com Alexandra Yates
WORKLOAD is the binary file used to execute the workload. ... These options can be used with most of the previous modes. ... Prints PowerTOP’s version information.
Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 22827907 › how-to-use-powertop
linux - How to use Powertop - Stack Overflow
It was released by Intel in 2007 under the GPLv2 license. It works for Intel, AMD, ARM and UltraSPARC processors. in order to use it, type powertop in terminal and it will start for more information you can go to its help command
Gentoo Wiki
wiki.gentoo.org › wiki › PowerTOP
PowerTOP - Gentoo wiki
If help is required for upgrading the kernel while enabling the above options, be sure to see the kernel upgrade article! Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-12-19 09:51 More information about USE flags ... PowerTOP does not have any configuration other than passing options via the command-line.
Unraid
forums.unraid.net › home › community › user customizations › reduce power consumption with powertop
Reduce power consumption with powertop - User Customizations - Unraid
October 21, 2020 - Powertop [Support auf Deutsch] Powertop is an Intel tool (yes, works for AMD, too) to check power consumption states of sata, pcie, usb, etc devices. You can download powertop as follows, then restart your server and it will be automatically installed: mkdir /boot/extra cd /boot/extra wget https:...
Intel
intel.com › content › www › us › en › developer › articles › tool › powertop-primer.html
PowerTOP Primer
April 23, 2015 - However... there are many things that can ruin the party, both inside the kernel and in userspace. PowerTOP combines various sources of information from the kernel into one convenient screen so that you can see how well your system is doing, and which components are the biggest problem. For PowerTOP to work best, use a Linux kernel with the tickless idle (NO_HZ) feature enabled (version 2.6.21 or later).
TLP
linrunner.de › tlp › faq › powertop.html
Powertop — TLP 1.10.1 documentation
Powertop insists on a value of 1500 centisecs, whereas TLP’s defaults are 1500 on AC and 6000 on battery power. If you incline towards Powertop’s opinion then change the setting to: