WattMate’s Mac measurements do not show a Safari battery advantage: the company says Safari barely appeared in its observations, and its time-saved figures estimate what happens when people quit Chrome. A separate 2024 test by Matt Birchler found lower average battery drain with Chrome during one specific mixed-browsing routine.
What WattMate’s Mac measurements show
WattMate dated its Chrome measurements to August 14, 2026, and updated its measurement page on October 14. It reported typical Chrome power use of about 2.3 W on one Apple-silicon MacBook and 4.1 W on another. The machines had different workloads and total power use, so those readings describe Chrome in two separate settings.
WattMate modeled that quitting Chrome would save 24 minutes on one Mac and 142 minutes on the other. Those estimates concern quitting Chrome, not switching to Safari. WattMate says Safari accumulated just 0.01 Wh on each Mac because its users scarcely used the browser, leaving too little Safari activity for a direct comparison. The company also says its per-window wattage figures may be about 5% high, while its Wh totals and app ratios are unaffected.
Birchler’s test found lower Chrome drain in one routine
In September 2024, Matt Birchler compared Chrome 128 with Safari 17.6 on a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip and 16 GB of memory. Each three-hour session repeated a 20-minute routine nine times: 10 minutes of YouTube, four minutes of Mastodon, two minutes on 9to5Mac, two minutes reading a New Yorker article, and two minutes in Google Docs. He ran six sessions per browser, varied their order, and used about 30% display brightness.
| Browser | Average battery drain per three-hour session |
| Safari 17.6 | 18.67% |
| Chrome 128 | 17.33% |
Chrome’s average was 1.34 percentage points lower, and its drain was lower in five of the six paired comparisons. Relative to Safari’s average, the difference works out to about 7.18% less drain. Birchler’s description of the result as about 9% does not match the averages he reported. His test reflects one Mac, two specific browser versions, and one routine; he cautioned that different browsing habits could change the outcome.
Apple’s streaming claim covers a different workload
Apple advertises up to five more hours of video streaming on a Mac with Safari than with Chrome. That claim concerns video playback. Birchler’s test mixed video with social media, news, and Google Docs, while WattMate measured Chrome on two machines where Safari saw almost no use. These results describe different workloads and cannot be read as one matched comparison.
Match the comparison to your day
For a day built around video streaming, Apple’s claim is the relevant one. For mixed browsing and web apps, Birchler’s figures offer a specific, older example, not a forecast for other Macs or browser versions. To compare your own setup, use the same Mac, settings, extensions, and representative tasks in both browsers; that keeps the workload consistent with the choice you are making.
