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What is the power consumption of a GPS tracker?

by thomas•

If you’ve ever installed a GPS tracker on a bike, a work van, or a fleet of construction equipment, you’ve probably asked the same question: “How long is this thing going to last on a single charge?” As a GPS tracker supplier, I get this question at least a dozen times a day—from small business owners tracking their delivery routes to outdoor enthusiasts securing their ATVs. It’s not a trivial one, either. Power consumption is the backbone of GPS tracker performance. Get it wrong, and you’ll replace batteries every two months, or worse, your tracker will die mid-mission when you need it most. GPS Tracker

Let’s cut through the jargon. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to GPS tracker power use, but breaking down how these devices work will make it clear why some trackers last weeks and others years. I’m going to walk you through the core components, the variables that change power draw, and what this means for your next purchase—all from the perspective of someone who’s shipped thousands of trackers and field-tested every model we sell.

First, let’s talk about how a GPS tracker actually operates. At its most basic, a GPS tracker does three main things: it listens for signals from satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, or Beidou), transmits that location data somewhere (usually to a server or your phone), and powers its internal electronics, like the microcontroller and cellular modem. Each of these steps uses energy, and how often a tracker does them is the single biggest driver of power use.

The biggest power hog by far is cellular transmission. Sending a small data packet over 4G or even 5G takes a lot more juice than listening for satellite signals. A tracker that sends location updates every minute, for example, will burn through battery 10x faster than one that sends updates every hour, because it’s firing off those cellular signals dozens of times a day. That’s why we have different “update intervals” for trackers: they’re adjustable settings, but they have a direct impact on battery life.

Then there’s the GPS module itself. The good news here is that modern GPS modules are way more efficient than they were five years ago. Ten years back, a GPS chip might draw 50 mA (milliamps) when active. Today, a high-quality u-blox or Telit GPS chip draws as little as 10 mA when locking onto satellites, and even less in standby mode. That’s a huge improvement, and it’s why our latest trackers can go months on a charge even with frequent updates. But there’s a catch here: a GPS module only needs to be active for a few seconds to get a fix. It doesn’t have to be on 24/7. So if you set your tracker to get a GPS fix once every 10 minutes, it might only be active for 10 seconds each time, then go back to sleep. That cuts power use drastically.

The other component that’s easy to overlook is the cellular modem. Just like GPS modules, cellular modems have gotten way more efficient, especially with the rise of LTE-M and NB-IoT, which are low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies designed specifically for IoT devices. Old 3G modems might draw 2 A when transmitting, which is overkill for most trackers. LTE-M, on the other hand, draws as little as 300 mA during transmission, and goes into a deep sleep when not sending data. That’s a 85% reduction in power use right there. This is why all the trackers we sell now use LTE-M or NB-IoT, not 2G or 3G—we saw first-hand how much longer those new modems make batteries last for our customers.

Now, let’s get into the numbers. This is the part most bloggers get wrong, because they quote peak power draw without context. Let’s take a real example from our most popular asset tracker, the one we sell for work vans and construction equipment. Let’s assume a standard 10,000 mAh lithium-ion battery, which is what most of our trackers use. Here’s how the numbers shake out based on update intervals:

If you set the tracker to send location updates every 15 minutes: that means it gets a GPS fix, sends a cell data packet, then sleeps for the rest of the 15 minutes. Total power use here is roughly 8 mA average. That means a 10,000 mAh battery will last 10,000 mAh / 8 mA = 1,250 hours, which is ~52 days. If you bump that up to every hour, average power drops to 2 mA, so battery life jumps to ~208 days, or almost 7 months. If you’re feeling conservative and set updates every 4 hours? Average power is 0.5 mA, so that 10,000 mAh battery will last over 2 years. That’s not a marketing gimmick—we’ve got customers who installed these trackers on their work trucks two years ago, and the batteries are still going strong, because they set the update interval to every 4 hours for non-critical tracking.

But wait, that’s not the full story. There are a handful of other variables that can change this number by 20% or more. First, environment. If a tracker is mounted inside a metal van, or under a thick tree canopy, the GPS module has to work harder to get a satellite fix, which uses more power. We had a customer who mounted their tracker inside a steel shipping container, and the battery only lasted 8 months instead of 18, because the GPS was struggling to lock on. The fix was simple: we recommended they mount it near a window or cut a small hole in the container’s roof for better signal, and battery life jumped back up to 16 months.

Then there’s temperature. Lithium-ion batteries hate extreme cold or extreme heat. If you’re tracking assets in a construction site in the Arizona desert in July, or a snowmobile in the Canadian Rockies in January, power use goes up. The GPS module and modem have to work harder to maintain their signals in extreme temperatures, and the battery itself loses some capacity. We rate our trackers to work between -20°C and 60°C, but we always advise customers to adjust their update intervals if they’re operating in those edge temperatures—shortening intervals isn’t needed, and you’ll avoid draining the battery too fast.

Another variable is whether your tracker has extra features. If a tracker has a built-in accelerometer to detect movement, a temperature sensor to track cargo, or a tamper alarm, that’s extra electronics drawing power. For example, a tracker with a tamper alarm that wakes up when the device is moved will use a tiny bit more power than a basic tracker, because it’s monitoring for movement 24/7. But that trade-off is usually worth it for customers who want to know if their trailer has been moved without permission.

I also want to clear up a common misconception: many people think that a higher mAh battery means better power efficiency, but that’s not always the case. A larger battery just gives you more capacity, not more efficiency. A 10,000 mAh tracker that uses 8 mA average will last 52 days, while a 15,000 mAh tracker that uses 10 mA average will only last 62 days—more battery, but worse efficiency, because its components aren’t optimized for low power. That’s why we focus on power efficiency first, before battery size. All our trackers are designed with ultra-low-power components, so even the smaller 5,000 mAh battery on our compact bike tracker lasts 8 months with hourly updates.

Now, what about real-world use cases, because numbers on paper don’t always match what happens in the field. Let’s run through a few common scenarios:

  1. Delivery van tracking: A courier service needs to track their vans every 10 minutes for real-time routing. We use our mid-sized tracker here, set to 10-minute updates, and the battery lasts about 4 months. That’s perfect—they only need to swap batteries once a quarter, which is way more manageable than monthly. Some of our larger delivery customers even use solar-powered trackers for their vans, so they never have to swap batteries at all. The solar panel trickles charge during the day, so average power use is almost zero.

  2. Construction equipment tracking: A contractor has excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks spread across multiple job sites. They don’t need real-time tracking, just to know if the equipment is on site and moving. We set their trackers to send updates every 4 hours, and the 10,000 mAh battery lasts 2.5 years. That means they only have to open the tracker once every two and a half years to swap the battery—huge cost savings, no downtime for maintenance.

  3. Bicycle and motorcycle tracking: Cyclists and motorcyclists want compact, light trackers that last as long as possible between charges. Our compact 5,000 mAh tracker, set to updates every hour, lasts 8 months. That’s way longer than most consumer trackers on the market, which usually only last 2-3 months, because we use better components and optimized firmware. We also have a low-power sleep mode for when the device is not moving, so if your bike is locked up for months, the tracker will wake up once a day to check for movement, instead of every hour.

One thing I always tell my customers is that you get to choose your power use, up to a point. If you need real-time tracking for deliveries or high-value assets, you’re going to use more power. If you just need occasional updates for non-critical assets, you can stretch the battery for years. There’s no “right” answer for power consumption, because it depends entirely on your use case. But what you shouldn’t have to do is sacrifice quality or reliability to get good battery life. That’s why we design every tracker with both power efficiency and durability in mind.

I also want to address a common pain point we hear from customers: trackers that die unexpectedly, often right when you need them. A lot of budget trackers use cheap components that aren’t optimized for low power, so their power consumption is all over the place. They might look good on paper, but in real use, they burn through batteries in half the time. We test every single one of our trackers for power consumption in our lab before we ship them, and we provide clear guidelines for what to expect based on your update interval. No guesswork, no surprises.

At the end of the day, GPS tracker power consumption is a balance between what you need and what’s efficient. It’s not just about the size of the battery, or the type of modem, or the GPS chip—it’s about how those parts work together, and how the firmware is optimized to minimize use when the tracker doesn’t need to be active. As a GPS tracker supplier, our job isn’t just to sell a device—it’s to make sure that device works for your specific needs, whether that’s a delivery van, a construction trailer, or a personal bike.

If you’re tired of trackers that die too fast, or you’re not sure what kind of power consumption your use case needs, I’d encourage you to reach out. We can walk you through the options, give you real numbers based on your intended use, and help you pick a tracker that will last as long as you need it to. It’s that simple.

GPS Tracker References:

  1. u-blox AG. (2023). Ultra-Low Power GPS Modules for IoT Applications.
  2. 3GPP. (2022). LTE-M and NB-IoT Power Consumption Specifications for IoT Devices.
  3. Telematics Industry Association. (2024). Best Practices for GPS Asset Tracker Power Efficiency.
  4. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2023). Lithium-Ion Battery Performance in Extreme Temperature Environments.
  5. IEC 62368-1. (2022). Safety Standards for Information and Communication Technology Equipment, Including Power Consumption Requirements for IoT Devices.

Shenzhen Xuneng Chuangxiang Technology Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen Xuneng Chuangxiang Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the most professional GPS tracker manufacturers and suppliers in China, featured by quality products and good service. Please rest assured to buy bulk customized GPS tracker made in China here from our factory. For price consultation, contact us.
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