Check Battery Level of Connected Bluetooth Device on Linux

For me running this in terminal worked:

upower --dump

You don't see Battery Level in the list of GATT characteristics since Bluez v5.48 because this specific GATT characteristic was moved into DBUS org.bluez.Battery1 interface.

From the command line:

1. Connect to your target BLE device with bluetoothctl
2. And then request DBUS by running: dbus-send --print-reply=literal --system --dest=org.bluez /org/bluez/hci0/dev_<mac_address_of_your_ble_peripheral> org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:"org.bluez.Battery1" string:"Percentage"

In my case with my BLE peripheral with the following MAC address C3:41:A6:C8:93:42:

$ dbus-send --print-reply=literal --system --dest=org.bluez \
    /org/bluez/hci0/dev_C3_41_A6_C8_93_42 org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
    string:"org.bluez.Battery1" string:"Percentage"
   variant       byte 94

Note: You could potentially scan and connect to your device using Bluez DBUS API.

This is such a great question, ahead of development and tools that are available at the moment.

The short answer (in October 2018)

you have to write it yourself! It won't be a one liner in the terminal. I am going to write this for myself in Python, but C has a little more documentation, so if you are skilled with C go for it.

The long answer, but it's more a recommended starting point:

1. Tony D: managed to use bluetoothctl to read attributes and send data to a bluetooth device. Definitely check the video information, you will find great links and references:
2. Szymon Janc: developer and contributer to the LINUX Bluetooth Stack

3. Definitely check out how this question is answered on Mobile devices. For Android it's the BAS (Battery Service):

One possible way (although hacky) is to grep inside the journal:

journalctl -b --user-unit pulseaudio -g "Battery Level" -o cat 

(-b to only show information in the current boot. Clearly information in the previous boots are irrelevant)

On my machine this outputs for example

Battery Level: 70%
Battery Level: 70%
Battery Level: 70%
Battery Level: 70%
Battery Level: 70%
Battery Level: 60%
Battery Level: 60%

Pick the last line. This does not distinguish whether the Bluetooth device is currently connected, or which one is in case there are more than one.

Alternative includes running bluetoothctl disconnect, then use the script in the accepted answer to get the battery level, then run bluetoothctl connect again. This is usually not acceptable if you're currently connected, but it works.

Another alternative, if it works for you, is to use an experimental feature of bluez package. Refer to .

On Ubuntu 20+, it shows the battery under the devices tab in the power panel

Here is a way to get battery level via pulseaudio logs with some hack. My bluetooth headset uses proprietary Apple HFP AT commands, HFP/A2DP protocols are handled by pulseaudio directly. It seems the only way to get those values is through pulse.

By default Bluez 'hides' the Battery Service UUID. This is because there is a 'battery plugin' loaded at startup of bluetoothd.

If you don't want the battery plugin to be activated and make the Battery Service UUID visible again to bluetoothctl or any other application, then change the startup command for bluetoothd to be like this: 'bluetoothd -P battery'. That will make sure the battery plugin is not loaded. On a Raspberry Pi the bluetooth.service is located in /lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service so you need to make the change in that file.

In the bluez version you are using the Gatt attributes may be experimental.If so you need to enable the experimental characteristics by running the bluetoothd deamon by -E keyword Like "/usr/libexec/bluetooth/bluetoothd -E" this worked for me.

(This answer is specific to headphones/headsets)

I'd been using the Python program from clst's answer for some time and although it worked, it required me to connect, then disconnect and run it again. If I understand the problem correctly, that happens because only one program can open a socket to talk to the bluetooth device, so it ends up fighting with PulseAudio over it.

I've recently found out about hsphfpd.

hsphfpd is specification with some prototype implementation used for connecting Bluetooth devices with HSP and HFP profiles on Linux operating system.

Basically, since only one program can communicate with the headset at once and it wouldn't make sense to implement battery level reporting in an audio server, nor implement audio in a power management software, it moves that functionality to an external daemon. That way, PulseAudio and whatever can both use the headset at the same time. There is a version of PulseAudio patched to use hsphfpd. Even though these are both still prototypes, they seem to work very well.

hsphfpd reports battery status (and other stuff) through DBus, so to get it from the command line, you can just do

dbus-send --system --dest=org.hsphfpd --print-reply /org/hsphfpd/hci0/dev_XX_XX_XX_XX_XX_XX/hsp_hs org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:org.hsphfpd.Endpoint string:BatteryLevel

or even call it from a program.

Both of these are available in the AUR, if you use Arch Linux.

Am posting this today, because today I have tested this method successfully.
I received a tip from @Mr.Newbie
A python solution: Bluetooth Headset Battery Level by @TheWeirdDev

install extension for gnome and "Bluetooth battery indicator" Work perfect

One way to check the battery for my JBL Headset was to issue the command below: (Command issued in Ubuntu 22.04)

pactl link sink

This will show the following, in my case:

Sink #2
    State: RUNNING
    Name: bluez_sink.<MAC>.a2dp_sink
    Description: JBL TUNE710BT
    Driver: module-bluez5-device.c
    Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    Channel Map: front-left,front-right
    Owner Module: 24
    Mute: no
    Volume: front-left: 32660 /  50% / -18,15 dB,   front-right: 32660 /  50% / -18,15 dB
            balance 0,00
    Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
    Monitor Source: bluez_sink.<MAC>.a2dp_sink.monitor
    Latency: 56606 usec, configured 42414 usec
    Flags: HARDWARE HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
    Properties:
        bluetooth.protocol = "a2dp_sink"
        bluetooth.codec = "sbc"
        device.description = "JBL TUNE710BT"
        device.string = "<MAC>"
        device.api = "bluez"
        device.class = "sound"
        device.bus = "bluetooth"
        device.form_factor = "headset"
        bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_<MAC>"
        bluez.class = "0x240404"
        bluez.alias = "JBL TUNE710BT"
        bluetooth.battery = "100%"
        device.icon_name = "audio-headset-bluetooth"
        device.intended_roles = "phone"
    Ports:
        headset-output: Headset (type: Headset, priority: 0, available)
    Active Port: headset-output
    Formats:
        pcm

As it' possible to see, exists a Property called bluetooth.battery that shows the battery percentage.

Following the procedure stated in I could show the battery percentage under Settings > Power and also using upower --dump

Step by Step

1. Add Experimental = True after [General] to /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
2. Restart the bluetooth service systemctl restart bluetooth
3. Connect (or Reconnect) you bluetooth device
4. Check battery percentage at Settings > Power

sudo cp /etc/bluetooth/main.conf /etc/bluetooth/main.bkp
sed '/General]/a Experimental = True' /etc/bluetooth/main.conf | sudo tee /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

But a WARNING! After doing that, I can't use this python script or pactl list sinks anymore.