How Long Does a GoPro Take to Fully Charge

If you charge your GoPro with a standard AC wall charger, it will take 1 to 2 hours for your GoPro to fully charge. However, using a low current power source like a computer USB port can take up to 4 hours to fully charge your GoPro. 

Hi, I’m your neighborhood GoPro expert, Larry. I’ve been a GoPro fanatic since 2014 and have filmed hundreds of hours of action content. Through my experience as a GoPro user, I’ve used dozens of different charging sources.

In today’s guide, I’ll explain how long it takes for a GoPro to fully charge and the fastest method to get your battery back to 100%.

Keep reading to learn more!

How Long Does It Take to Fully Charge a GoPro?

The amount of time it takes to fully charge your GoPro depends on a few factors:

  • What charger you’re using
  • The power available to the charger
  • The age and condition of your battery

As I mentioned earlier, the primary factor for fully charging your GoPro depends on what power source you use. Power sources like a computer USB port will charge significantly slower than a standard wall charger. This is because the voltage and amperage provided by a computer are much lower than what’s provided by a wall charger.

The voltage in a computer’s USB port is optimized for data transfer and not raw power transfer. On the other hand, wall chargers are designed to move power quickly and charge various devices.

If your GoPro battery is completely drained, it will take 1 to 2 hours to fully charge your camera. Power banks can fully charge a GoPro in 2 to 3 hours. A computer USB port needs 3 to 4 hours to fully charge a GoPro camera.

Power banks charge GoPros faster than computer USB ports because they are explicitly designed to transfer power. As such, they have higher voltages and amperes than USB ports. However, power banks still don’t provide as much power as a standard wall outlet.

How to Tell If GoPro is Charging?

One or more of your GoPro’s LED lights will turn red when the GoPro is plugged in and charging. The red status light indicates that the camera is currently charging. 

If you plug your charger into your GoPro and the red LED status lights don’t come on, you may have an issue on your hand. This usually means that your charging cable is broken or your charging source (power brick, power bank, or USB port) is not working.

In this case, I recommend first testing a new charging cable and then a new charging source if the problem persists.

How to Know When GoPro is Fully Charged?

There are two ways to know when your GoPro is fully charged, depending on which GoPro model you have. First, if you have the new GoPro HERO10 Black, the red LED status light will turn green once it’s done charging. 

For other GoPro models like the GoPro HERO9 Black, the red LED status light will turn off when it’s fully charged. So if your red LED status light turns off or changes into a green color, your GoPro is fully charged and ready to record.

What’s the Best Way to Charge a GoPro?

The fastest way to charge a GoPro is with a wall outlet. Wall outlets provide higher electrical output than power banks and computer USB ports. For this reason, I recommend using a wall outlet to charge your GoPro if you’re in a rush.

If you use a standard wall charger, your GoPro battery should charge to 80% after 1 hour. For a full charge, it may take around 2 hours.

However, you can use a USB-C Supercharger to charge your GoPro even faster. This is a charging brick officially created by GoPro to enable faster charging times. The charger has a USB-C port, so you’ll need a USB-C to USB-C charging cable.

USB-C cables are designed to carry more power than older USB cables and provide faster charging. GoPro claims that the USB-C port charges GoPro devices 20 to 70% faster than a conventional wall plug.

In my experience, this claim is accurate, and I’m impressed with how fast my GoPro Supercharger takes my GoPro battery from 0 to 100%.

FAQs

Although you now know how long it takes for a GoPro to fully charge, you may have a few additional questions about GoPro charging.

Is it OK to charge GoPro overnight?

Many GoPro users worry that they’ll damage their GoPro’s battery by leaving it charging overnight. However, you shouldn’t worry. I’ve had no trouble leaving my GoPro charging overnight. If you’re worried about overcharging, I recommend purchasing a GoPro charging station that supports overcharge. This means the charging station will shut down when the battery is fully charged.

Can I use GoPro while charging?

You can use your GoPro while charging it with a USB-C cable. However, the battery will stop charging as you’re recording and continue to charge after you finish recording. For this reason, I recommend letting your GoPro charge for a few minutes before recording with it.

Can I charge my GoPro with my phone charger?

You can charge your GoPro with any USB-C cable or compatible wall outlet. This is especially helpful if you lose your standard GoPro charging equipment or are on vacation and forgot it. Charging your GoPro with my phone charger has saved me multiple times when I forget to pack all my charging tools.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my guide on GoPro charging time. In short, you will need to wait around 2 hours for a GoPro battery to go from 0 to 100% when using a standard wall charger.

Furthermore, wall chargers are much faster for charging GoPros than computer USB ports and most power banks.

But now I’d like to hear your thoughts. Do you have any additional questions on GoPro Charging? I’d love to answer them. Also, what type of content do you film with your GoPro? I love hearing stories and watching videos of the amazing clips you recorded with your GoPro.

Let me hear it by dropping a quick comment right below.

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