How Much Power Does A PS5 Use?

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If you managed to get a PlayStation 5 then you’ve done well – they’re still not the easiest console to find in stores. Hopefully, you managed to get one at retail, but a lot of people have resorted to paying much higher amounts on the resale market, often spending hundreds of dollars more than they should just to get one.

But now that you’ve got one, maybe you’re conscious of how much it might be costing you to play it? If you’ve already spent so much buying the console in the first place, is it now hitting you hard when you switch it on?

Let’s take a look at the PlayStation 5 energy consumption, how much it may be costing you to play it, and how that stacks up against other games consoles.

PS5

How Many Watts Does A PS5 Use?

The official power rating of a PlayStation 5 Disc Edition console is 350 watts, while the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition has a power rating of 340 watts. Normally the console will draw a lot less than this – expect to use around 200 watts while gaming.

Straight away, let’s clear up the differences between the two consoles. The PlayStation 5 Disc Edition is the more expensive version that comes with a disc drive – specifically, a Blu-ray drive that can play PS5 games, PS4 games as well as 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray movies, standard Blu-ray discs and DVDs.

The PlayStation 5 Digital Edition doesn’t have that drive, so if you want to play games you’ll either need to download them to the system’s 825GB of SSD storage, or you can stream them through the revamped PlayStation Plus subscription service.

Clearly, Sony believes that it takes around 10 watts to power their disc drive, since that’s the only difference between the maximum power ratings for the two consoles.

And it may be that in future some software pushes the PS5 up to these maximum limits. But early tests, even in 4K, have the consoles drawing somewhere between 150 and 200 Watts when you’re playing games.

How Much Power Does A PS5 Use In Rest Mode?

In rest mode, the PlayStation 5 draws around 1.5 watts. Even when completely switched off, if plugged in the PlayStation 5 will draw 1.3 watts. The only way to stop it from drawing any power is to completely unplug it. You can change the settings for Rest Mode from the PS5 menu.

If you want to adjust how your PS5 uses Rest Mode, just head to the Settings menu from the home screen – it’s the little cog in the top-right. From here, you’ll want to head to the Power Savings option.

Once you’ve in this menu, you have a few different things you can do. Firstly, you can define how long it takes before the PS5 automatically switches into Rest Mode. There are two versions of this setting – one for when you’re playing media (so using a streaming app to watch a movie, or listening to music) and one for when you’re gaming.

With either of these, if the controller isn’t touched, the PS5 will automatically enter Rest Mode to save power after the times you set. For media streaming, you can set it from 1 to 5 hours, or disable it, while with gaming you can also set it to 20 minutes.

Don’t worry – this only works if you don’t touch the controller. You won’t be booted out of your game mid-match if you’re actively playing.

The second thing you can tweak in this menu is which features are available while the PS5 is in Rest Mode. If you enable USB charging then you can keep your controllers charged up, but the PS5 will draw more power.

The same is true if you enable the console to stay connected to the internet. While the PS5 is in Rest Mode, it can stay online to download any updates, but this will also draw more watts than the 1.5 while completely resting.

And if you do keep it connected to the internet then you can also enable the feature to turn on the PS5 using the Network – i.e. from the PlayStation app on your phone.

If you want to use the least power while in Rest Mode, make sure all of these are disabled. However, that does mean you’ll need to download any updates while the PS5 is fully switched on.

Considering you often can’t do much else while downloading updates, it makes sense to switch this setting on and turn the PS5 onto Rest Mode when updates are needed, but then disable it again once done.

Here’s a guide to how much power the PS5 uses in different states:

ModeConsumption
Power off1.3 watts
Standby mode1.5 watts
On, navigating the home screen50 watts
Streaming apps70 watts
Gaming200 watts
Max capacity340/350 watts

An interesting thing to note is that while the PS5 uses more power than the PS4 for gaming, it’s actually more energy efficient when it comes to using streaming apps – the PS4 would draw around 90 watts for Netflix, compared to 70 watts with the PS5.

How Many Watts Does A TV and PS5 Use?

The average TV uses 57 watts of power, so combined with the PS5 when gaming they would draw around 260 watts total. Most TVs draw between 27 watts and 134 watts, while the PS5 uses between 50 and 200 watts when switched on, depending on what you’re using it for.

The power draw of a TV depends on the size of the screen and whether it’s a standard LED or if it’s a QLED or OLED.

So, if you were gaming on a 75” OLED TV you’d probably be using around 334 watts, but if you were just watching Netflix through the PS5 on a 50” LED TV then you would be using a lot less combined power – in the region of 115 watts.

However, since most smart TVs would come with Netflix built-in, you would be wasting electricity by using the PS5 to run it.

Read more: How Much Electricity Does A TV Use?

How Much Electricity Does A PS5 Use?

The PlayStation 5 uses between 50 and 200 watts when in use, although it is rated for a higher wattage which it may use with more advanced games or when working with PlayStation VR in future.

Here’s how the PS5 compares to other consoles of this generation:

ConsoleWatts used
PlayStation 550-200
Xbox Series X45-200
Xbox Series S25-100
Nintendo Switch10-18

The PS5 and the Xbox Series X both have very similar power draw, but Microsoft does offer a lower-powered alternative with the Xbox Series S, which can still play all the same games but not with all the fancy graphical bells and whistles. Of course, neither compare to the tiny power draw of the Nintendo Switch.

It’s also interesting to look at how PlayStation consoles have evolved over the years:

ConsoleYear ReleasedWatts Used
PlayStation 5202050-200
PlayStation Classic*20183.5
PlayStation 4 Pro201675-160
PlayStation 4 Slim201655-110
PlayStation 4 (original)201390-150
PlayStation 3 Super Slim201270
PlayStation 3 Slim200985
PlayStation 3 (original)2006190
PlayStation 2 Slimline200424
PlayStation 2 (original)200046
PS One20006.5
PlayStation (original)199510

*The PlayStation Classic was the re-released original PlayStation, but a much smaller version with 20 games built-in.

How Much Power Does A PS5 Use Per Hour?

A PlayStation 5 when gaming will use 200 watt-hours per hour. It will use only 50 watt-hours per hour if you leave it on the home screen, with a slight jump to 70 watt-hours per hour if you use it to watch a streaming app.

It’s a good idea to get used to managing your PS5 properly and switching it off when not in use, especially with most games having frequent auto-saves now.

If you’re stepping away to cook dinner, get used to switching it off, as over the course of a year you could save a few dollars just by getting into this good habit.

falling asleep playing Playstation

How Much Does A PS5 Cost In Electricity?

A PS5 will use less than 3 cents per hour when gaming, based on an electricity cost of $0.14 per kWh. When streaming using an app like Netflix or Prime Video, that cost drops dramatically to just under 1 cent per hour.

The average gamer spends around 8.5 hours a week gaming. So, if you used your PS5 exclusively for gaming, and you left it in Rest Mode (1.5 watt-hours per hour) when you weren’t using it, here’s how much it would cost you for the year:

ConsoleWeekly Hours GamingCost To GameWeekly Hours Rest ModeCost For Rest ModeTotal Weekly CostYearly Cost
PS58.5$0.24159.5$0.03$0.27$14.12

Are you someone that games a lot more than the average? Then you can work out your own costs. All you need is the cost per kilowatt-hour you pay for electricity, and the number of kilowatt-hours used.

Because we know the PS5 uses 200 watt-hours, you just need to divide that by 1,000 to get the kilowatt-hours, so a PS5 uses 0.2 kilowatt-hours per hour for gaming.

Multiply your electricity cost by the kilowatt-hours used and you’ve got the cost per hour. This calculator makes it easy:


Is The PS5 Energy-Efficient?

Compared to other games consoles, the PS5 consumes the most electricity, but that’s to be expected as it is the newest and most powerful. It is actually more efficient than some PS4 models as it can run similar apps – such as Netflix – while drawing less power.

Gaming on a PS5 does require more power than a PS4 but that’s because the games are also more complex graphically. In theory, to run exactly the same gaming experience the PS5 would be more energy-efficient, but instead, it upgrades the graphics of older games to give a better experience.

Read more: PS4 Power Consumption Guide

Overall, with a cost of less than $15 per year in electricity for the average gamer, it’s not a huge drain on your electricity bill. But you can save a few bucks each year by switching it off when not in use.

The Bottom Line

As games consoles become more powerful, they’re going to need to draw a higher number of watts to be able to do everything they’re capable of. A PS5 will draw more electricity than the last generation of consoles because it is doing a better job of rendering games.

The smart thing to do is to just manage your time carefully. With features that allow games to restart quickly, there’s no reason to leave your game paused if you’re stepping away for more than 20 minutes. Turn it off completely, and over the course of a year, you might have saved enough to pay for a month or two of PlayStation Plus.