How to check a wireless keyboard battery on Windows

A wireless keyboard rarely warns you. Many have no screen, some have no light at all, and the first sign of a flat battery is a key that stops responding halfway through a sentence or a match. Unlike a laptop's own battery, a keyboard's charge never appears in the Windows taskbar.

Bluetooth keyboards: Windows settings

Open Settings › Bluetooth & devices. If the keyboard implements the standard Bluetooth battery service, its level appears under its name. Many recent office keyboards do.

If no percentage appears, the keyboard does not expose that service, and Windows has no other way to ask. That is common on gaming keyboards, whose level only travels through their brand's own protocol.

Keyboards on a USB receiver

A keyboard on a 2.4 GHz receiver (Logitech Lightspeed or Unifying, Razer HyperSpeed, Corsair Slipstream, or the dongle of many mechanical keyboards) is not a Bluetooth device as far as Windows is concerned. Its battery level goes through the brand's protocol, inside the receiver, and Windows never reads it.

To see it, you need a program that speaks that protocol:

• Logitech: Logi Options+ for office keyboards (MX Keys, K series), G HUB for G keyboards (G915, G715, PRO X 60).
• Razer: Synapse, for keyboards such as the BlackWidow V3 Pro or the DeathStalker V2 Pro.
• Corsair: iCUE, for the K57 RGB Wireless or the K63 Wireless.
• Mechanical keyboards on 2.4 GHz dongles: the brand's driver, when it shows the level at all.

These programs show the level, but only in their own window, and each one handles a single brand.

The keyboard's own indicators

Many keyboards also have a built-in way to show their charge: a small LED that turns red when the battery is low, or a key combination (often with the Fn key) that lights up the backlight or the number row to show the level. Your keyboard's manual will tell you which.

It works without any software, but you have to think of checking, and it tells you nothing while you are busy typing or playing.

Keeping the level in sight

BatteryOnPC reads the battery of more than 50 wireless keyboards: Logitech (MX Keys, MX Mechanical, K380, K780, G915, G715…), Razer (BlackWidow V3 Pro, DeathStalker V2 Pro…), Corsair (K57 RGB Wireless, K63 Wireless), and the MonsGeek M1 V5, Attack Shark K86 and Womier 75 TMR on their 2.4 GHz dongle.

Add the keyboard once from the Devices tab of its window (Scan for devices, then Add): it gets its own icon in the taskbar, tinted by level, and a notification at the threshold you choose. A mouse and a keyboard on the same Logitech receiver each get their own icon.

Mice work the same way: see how to check a wireless mouse battery. Every keyboard BatteryOnPC reads is on the compatibility page, and the details for each brand on its page, such as Logitech or Razer.