What size power station you need for Starlink

How much power Starlink draws

Starlink prints each kit's average power draw on its spec sheet as a range. This page uses the top of each range, so the hours below do not overstate what a battery gives you.

• Starlink Standard (V4 dish with Router 3): an average of 75 to 100 W, per Starlink's Standard spec sheet. The calculator uses 100 W. The sheet lists no DC input, so the kit runs from its AC power supply, and the station's inverter adds its own draw: 10 W on a station under 1,000 Wh, 15 W from 1,000 to 1,499 Wh and 18 W from 1,500 Wh.
• Starlink Mini: an average of 25 to 40 W and an input rating of 12 to 48 V, 60 W, per Starlink's Mini spec sheet. The calculator uses 40 W. From a 12 V socket or a USB-C port, it skips the inverter.

Starlink draws power whenever it is switched on, not only while you are online, so count every hour it stays on. The inverter figures are Jackery's calculator numbers, applied here to every brand.

What size each Starlink setup needs

These are the battery sizes the calculator gives for common setups, at 100 W for the Standard and 40 W for the Mini. Sizes are rated capacity, with 82% of it counted as usable.

• Mini for a few hours: a 286 to 293.8 Wh station runs it for 5.9 to 6.0 hours without the inverter.
• Mini for a 10-hour day: 488 Wh. No station here has a capacity between 293.8 Wh and 1,004.8 Wh, so the next size up is the 1 kWh class, which runs the Mini for 21 to 24 hours.
• Standard for 8 hours: 1,122 Wh. The BLUETTI AC180 (1,152 Wh) is the smallest station here that covers it, and a 1,024 Wh station runs it for 7.3 hours.
• Standard for 24 hours: 3,454 Wh. Only the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus (27 hours) and the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 (28 hours) run it past 24 hours.

Change the hours in the tool above to match how long you keep Starlink on. The runtime method shows the formula.

Run the Mini from 12 V or USB-C

You can plug the Mini's own power supply into a station's AC outlet, but the station then adds its inverter's draw (10 to 18 W, depending on the station's size) to the Mini's 40 W. Two ports skip the inverter:

• 12 V car socket: 12 V is within the Mini's 12 to 48 V input rating. Starlink's sheet does not list a cable for a car socket, so you need a 12 V car-plug cable that fits the Mini's barrel-jack power input. Every station here has a car socket rated 10 A or more except the EcoFlow DELTA 3 Classic, which has none, and the two DJI models, which give 12 V car output only through the DJI Power SDC to Car Charger Plug Power Cable.
• USB-C: Starlink's Mini sheet asks for a USB PD source of 100 W (20 V, 5 A minimum) with its USB-C to Barrel Jack Cable accessory. Every station here has a USB-C port rated 100 W or more except the Jackery Explorer 300, whose port is rated 60 W. Use the fastest port: the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 has one 100 W port and one 30 W port.

Every station in the table above has one of these ports, so the Starlink Mini column applies to all of them.

Worked example: Starlink Standard and a laptop for a workday

Say you run a Starlink Standard for 8 hours, charge a Windows laptop once (Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13, 57 Wh battery) and charge a phone once. This is the list in the tool above, and the calculator adds it up:

• Starlink Standard, 8 hours: 920 Wh, including the inverter's own draw
• Laptop, one charge over USB-C: 57 Wh
• Phone (Samsung Galaxy S25), one charge: 15.4 Wh
• Total: 992 Wh used, which needs 1,210 Wh of rated capacity

A 1,024 Wh station covers 85% of that day, and the BLUETTI AC180 covers 95%. The Jackery Explorer 1500 v2 (1,536 Wh) is the smallest station here that covers the whole day, with 1.24 days of capacity.

Charging a laptop alongside Starlink

A laptop charged from a USB-C port also skips the inverter, so the calculator counts each charge as the laptop's battery capacity. Full charges per station, from the makers' battery figures:

• Windows ultrabook (57 Wh): 4.1 charges from a 286 Wh station, 14.7 from a 1,024 Wh station
• MacBook Air 13-inch (53.8 Wh): 4.4 charges from a 286 Wh station, 15.6 from a 1,024 Wh station
• MacBook Pro 14-inch (72.4 Wh): 3.2 charges from a 286 Wh station, 11.6 from a 1,024 Wh station

A Mini for 8 hours plus one Windows laptop charge and one phone charge needs 479 Wh of rated capacity. A 286 to 293.8 Wh station covers 60 to 61% of that day, and the Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 covers 2.14 days.

Check the ports before you buy. The EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus has one USB-C port, so run the Mini from its 12 V socket and the laptop from USB-C. The Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 has three USB-C ports and a 12 V socket.

Starlink in a van or RV

If Starlink stays on all day in a van or RV, size for 24 hours a day:

• Starlink Mini, 24 hours: 1,171 Wh. The Jackery Explorer 1500 v2 covers 1.31 days, and the BLUETTI AC180 covers 98% of a day.
• Starlink Standard, 24 hours: 3,454 Wh. Only the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus (1.11 days) and the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 (1.19 days) cover it.

The Mini can run from a 12 V socket or USB-C port with no inverter, while the Standard needs an AC outlet. To recharge from solar panels, check the most solar power each station accepts, as its maker lists it: 220 W on the EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus, 400 W on the Jackery Explorer 1500 v2, 500 W on the BLUETTI AC180 and 600 W on the Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2.

For the other loads in an RV (12 V fridge, water pump, furnace blower), see power stations for an RV.

More ways to size a power station

• Portable power station for an RV: what size you need
• Portable power station for camping: what size you need
• What size power station you need for a power outage