PayPal Battery Drain: What 1,195 Reviews Tried (2026)

Your phone is warm in your pocket and the battery is at half by lunchtime. The battery screen names the culprit: PayPal, with hours of background activity and almost no screen time. You force stop it, restrict it, put it to sleep. A few hours later it is back at the top of the list.

Since August 2026 that has been one of the most common complaints about PayPal's Android app, and the reviews that describe it come overwhelmingly from Germany. We read them to find out what people tried, and what actually stopped the drain.

PayPal holds 4.21 stars from 3,734,700 Google Play ratings. The battery reports below come from Google Play.

Quick Answer: Why Is PayPal Draining My Battery?

From 7 August to 2 October 2026, 1,195 reviews in PayPal's German Google Play storefront mention battery drain or high CPU use, 1,171 of them with 1 to 3 stars. Reviewers say the app keeps running in the background after the redesigned 10.x app arrived, even when they never open it. The only change that several reviewers say stopped it: 7 say the drain ended once PayPal was no longer the phone's default contactless payment app. 165 say force stop, background limits, standby or power saving did not help, 11 say switching NFC off alone did not help, and of 49 who report the result of a reinstall, 32 say it changed nothing. PayPal did not reply to any of these reviews.

How We Read These Reviews

We pulled the 4,050 most recent Google Play reviews from PayPal's German storefront on 3 October 2026. They cover 7 August to 2 October 2026, 57 days with reviews on every one of them. 3,087 are 1 to 3 stars.

We searched every review for Akku, Accu, battery, CPU and the German words for power use and power hog. That returned 1,195 reviews. We then searched those for each thing reviewers tried (reinstalling, clearing the cache, force stop, background limits, standby, NFC, the default wallet) and read every match by hand. The counts below are reviews we read and sorted, not keyword hits.

For comparison we also pulled the US, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Polish storefronts.

When It Started

The first battery complaint in our German sample is from 7 August. It grew with the new app, and peaked in the week PayPal's version 10.13.0 reached reviewers:

The single worst day was 17 September, with 112 battery complaints. It has eased since, but not stopped: between 25 September and 1 October, German reviewers still posted 19 to 33 battery complaints a day.

Of the 1,171 negative battery reviews, 883 were written from a 10.x build of the app, and 329 from version 10.13.0 alone. 991 are one star.

What Reviewers Describe

The pattern is consistent. The app sits at or near the top of the phone's battery list, with long background and CPU time and little or no screen time. The figures reviewers quote are large: 409 percentages in the negative reviews refer to battery use, with a median of 40% and the middle half between 30% and 50%. 50 reviewers say the phone gets warm or hot. 102 name a Samsung Galaxy model and 6 a Google Pixel. The reviews do not tell us whether other brands are spared.

German

Ist eigentlich eine tolle App, aber seit ein paar Tagen saugt dieses Biest meinen Akku leer wie blöd! Hintergrundnutzung ist abgestellt, die App ist geschlossen, und trotzdem verbraucht die App GESCHLOSSEN 50% meines Akkus (47,6% CPU Nutzung)! Habe mein Handy heute zweimal Laden müssen, das ist doppelt so viel wie sonst. Werde sie erst wieder installieren, wenn das behoben wurde.

The reviewer says the app has been draining the battery for a few days: background use is switched off and the app is closed, and it still uses 50% of the battery (47.6% CPU use), so they had to charge the phone twice in one day. Another reviewer describes the warning Samsung phones show:

German

Seit dem Update zieht die App den Akku innerhalb kurzer Zeit leer. Obwohl Hintergrunddatennutzung eingeschränkt ist. In den Einstellungen steht bei Akku jeden Tag "Hohe CPU-Auslastung" (liegt meist bei über 21 %) obwohl die App kein einziges Mal geöffnet wurde.

That one says the app drains the battery quickly although background data use is restricted, and that the battery settings show "high CPU usage" every day, usually above 21%, without the app ever being opened.

The same complaint exists in the US, on a smaller scale. 22 of the 1,016 substantial negative US reviews from the new app mention battery drain, for example:

Huge battery drain since the last update on September 11th. (V10.13.0) on my S24 ultra, sucks half (yes, about 50%) of my battery over 10 hrs. The new ui is terrible, more ads than function. At least fix the drain, please.

Why Germany?

In the other storefronts we checked, the problem barely appears. Among negative reviews since 17 August, battery or CPU comes up once in France (of 217), never in Italy (of 223), and once in Spain (of 747). Germany's 1,171 stands alone.

Reviews alone cannot tell us why. The main clue reviewers offer is contactless payment: 67 of the 1,195 battery reviews mention NFC, contactless payment, paying in a shop or a wallet, and several say the drain began when they set PayPal up to pay in stores.

German

Die App saugt seit dem Update das Akku leer. Die ist so nicht verwendbar und es muss dringend nachgebessert werden! Update: Der hohe Akkuverbrauch scheint insbesondere in der Funktion als Standardapp für NFC Zahlungen zu liegen. Nimmt man die Paypal App dort raus, ist der Akkuverbrauch deutlich geringer. Abschalten von NFC allein hat bei mir nichts gebracht.

The reviewer says the drain seems to be tied to PayPal acting as the default app for NFC payments: taking PayPal out of that role made it much lower, while switching NFC off on its own did nothing for them.

What PayPal Tells Reviewers

Nothing, in this sample. PayPal replied to none of the 1,195 German battery reviews. Three reviewers say they contacted support: one says the tips were generic and did not help, one that support had no current solution, and one that support never answered.

Step 1: Confirm That PayPal Is the Problem

Open your phone's battery usage screen and look for PayPal near the top, with long background time and little screen time. On Samsung phones, reviewers say the battery settings also flag PayPal with a "high CPU usage" warning. If PayPal is not near the top, the drain is probably something else.

Step 2: Stop Using PayPal as Your Default Contactless Payment App

This is the change with the best record in the reviews. 7 reviewers say the drain stopped, or fell sharply, once PayPal was no longer the phone's default wallet or contactless payment app. One says PayPal went from 40% of the battery to about 0.5%:

German

Ich habe das Problem mit der Akkulaufzeit auf meinem Samsung Galaxy S25 beheben können, indem ich die Standard Wallet App von PayPal auf Google Wallet geändert habe. Die PayPal Debit Karte habe ich einfach in Google Wallet hinterlegt. Alternativ könnte man NFC deaktivieren, wenn man es nicht braucht. Das sollte auch funktionieren. Vorher hat PayPal 40% Akku gezogen und jetzt wieder etwa 0,5%, so wie vor dem Update. Das alte Design war dennoch viel übersichtlicher!

That reviewer, on a Galaxy S25, changed the default wallet app from PayPal to Google Wallet and added the PayPal debit card to Google Wallet. Another kept the bank card in Google Wallet instead:

German

Ich habe PayPal jahrelang problemlos als Standard-App fürs kontaktlose Bezahlen genutzt. Seit einigen Wochen zieht die App auf meinem Galaxy S25 massiv Akku - auch wenn ich PayPal gar nicht nutze. Mein Akku war nach 3,5 Stunden bei nur noch 5 %, während PayPal stundenlange Hintergrund- und CPU-Nutzung bei 0 Min. Bildschirmzeit zeigte. Lösung: PayPal nicht mehr als Standard-Bezahl-App nutzen, sondern die Bankkarte direkt in Google Wallet hinterlegen. Seitdem ist das Problem weg. Schade PayPal!

They say that after PayPal stopped being the default payment app, with the bank card stored directly in Google Wallet, the problem was gone. It is not a guaranteed fix. 2 reviewers say turning off PayPal's mobile card or debit card function did not lower the drain, and switching NFC off on its own did not help 11 others.

Step 3: Set Up Another Way to Pay in Shops

If PayPal is no longer your default, you still need a way to pay at the till. Reviewers used Google Wallet with a bank card or the PayPal debit card, or their bank's own app. One says the drain disappeared when they removed PayPal and let their bank's app take over contactless payment:

German

Alle Tipps ausprobiert und die App saugt weiterhin den Strom im Hintergrund! Ich überlege die App komplett zu deinstallieren, wenn das Problem nicht behoben wird. Update: jetzt ist die App weg und Überraschung - Problem mit dem starken Akku Verbrauch im Hintergrund nicht mehr da. Die App meiner Hausbank hat Paypal als NFC Lösung zum Bezahlen erfolgreich ersetzt.

Be aware that 5 reviewers report trouble getting PayPal itself to work inside Google Wallet, including one whose PayPal virtual card was declined there. The reviewer in Step 2 who stored a bank card in Google Wallet instead says it worked.

Step 4: Do Not Rely on Force Stop or Background Limits

This is the most common thing reviewers tried, and the least successful. 165 say force stop, restricting background use, deep standby or power saving did not help, or that the app could not be stopped at all:

German

zieht mir seit Tagen den Akku leer. Stoppen erzwingen, Hintergrund beschränken hilft alles nichts. Bitte beheben!

The reviewer says the app has been draining the battery for days, and that force stop and restricting background use do nothing.

9 say a background limit or deep standby did bring relief. And 5 say restricting PayPal this way stopped contactless payment or other features from working until they opened the app.

German

Seit dem letzten Update hat die App trotz Nichtnutzung eine hohe CPU Auslastung und zieht damit Akku ohne Ende. Das ist nicht akzeptabel. Die App in tiefes Standby zu versetzen beendet zwar die CPU Nutzung, aber damit muss man die App halt komplett starten, wenn man kontaktlos bezahlen will. Workaround mit Google Wallet. Aber wenn PayPal das nicht schleunigst ändert, fliegt die App vom Handy. Maximale Belastung war zeitweise sogar bei 63 Prozent.

The reviewer says deep standby ends the CPU use, but then you have to start the app fully whenever you want to pay contactless. They moved to Google Wallet.

Step 5: Reinstall Only if You Accept the Odds

49 reviewers say what happened after they uninstalled and reinstalled. 11 say it fixed the drain, 6 say it helped only for a while or only partly, and 32 say it changed nothing.

German

Saugt neuerdings den Akku im Hintergrund extrem schnell leer. Update: Nach Neuinstallation ist der Akkuverbrauch wieder normal. Trotzdem nur 3 Sterne wegen dem Stress und der nervigen Werbung.

German

App Saugt mit den letzten zwei Update den Akku leer. Egal ob man erzwingt das sie sich beendet oder nicht hab eine CPU Nutzung der App heute von über 7 Stunden und ein Akkuverbrauch dadurch von fast 50% nur durch die Paypal App! Ein deinstallieren und neu installieren hat keine Besserung gebracht

The first says that after a reinstall, battery use was back to normal. The second says the last two updates drain the battery whether or not they force stop the app, with over 7 hours of CPU time and almost 50% of the battery in one day, and that uninstalling and reinstalling brought no improvement.

A reinstall also has side effects. 4 reviewers say it created a new problem: two now get a text message code every time they log in, and two could not reactivate their card or contactless payment afterwards.

Step 6: Update the App, Then Check Again

3 reviewers say a later PayPal update fixed the drain for them, one naming version 10.12.0:

German

Nach dem Update auf 10.12.0 ist der Energieverbrauch endlich wieder normal!

That reviewer says that after the update to 10.12.0, power use was finally back to normal. Another says the problem came back with 10.13.0, and the German complaints kept arriving at about 20 to 30 a day into October. So update, then look at the battery screen again after a day of normal use. If PayPal is still at the top, Step 2 is the change reviewers say works.

Read the Full Breakdown

The redesign behind this complaint brought other changes too: a home screen full of ads, a dark mode with no switch, and a hidden log out button. We covered those in PayPal's new app, through 1,016 negative reviews. You can also read the full negative review breakdown for PayPal on Android and PayPal on iOS, or see apps like PayPal.