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upower

Learn how to use upower to query battery percentage, list power devices, and monitor power events for Bluetooth headsets and other devices on Linux

Grep battery percentage of headset

upower --dump|grep "percentage"

Show connected devices

upower -e
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/headset_dev_C1_09_55_18_8B_BB
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice

Show info for our headset

upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/headset_dev_C1_09_55_18_8B_BB
	native-path:          /org/bluez/hci0/dev_C1_09_55_18_8B_BB
	model:                WH-1000XM5
	serial:               88:C9:E8:1E:9F:B5
	power supply:         no
	updated:              Thu Jan 29 00:01:15 2026 (514 seconds ago)
	has history:          yes
	has statistics:       no
	headset
	  warning-level:       none
	  percentage:          100%
	  icon-name:          'battery-missing-symbolic'

Output when we turn our bluetooth headphones on/off

upower -m
Monitoring activity from the power daemon. Press Ctrl+C to cancel.
[01:54:55.412]  device removed:   /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/headset_dev_82_17_e4_c9_2d_a9
[01:55:09.747]  device added:     /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/headset_dev_82_17_e4_c9_2d_a9

Output when we turn our bluetooth headphones on/off (it only dumps data when we connect our headphones)

upower --monitor-detail
Monitoring activity from the power daemon. Press Ctrl+C to cancel.

[01:57:23.256]  device added:     /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/headset_dev_C1_09_55_18_8B_BB
  native-path:          /org/bluez/hci0/dev_C1_09_55_18_8B_BB
  model:                WH-1000XM5
  serial:               C1:09:55:18:8B:BB
  power supply:         no
  updated:              Thu Jan 29 01:57:23 2026 (0 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       no
  headset
    warning-level:       none
    percentage:          100%
    icon-name:          'battery-missing-symbolic'
  History (charge):
    1769648243  0.000   unknown
  History (rate):
    1769648243  0.000   unknown

Resource(s)

https://upower.freedesktop.org/docs/