No, it needs power. The Standard dish draws about 75–100 W Official spec: From a Starlink specification sheet or help article. Checked Oct 5, 2026 including the router. Keep it on a UPS, power station or generator and it keeps working when the grid is down; the satellites don’t care about your power cut.
Your options
| Option | Good for | Wrong when |
|---|---|---|
| UPS | Riding through flickers and short outages with no gap | Outages last many hours: small UPS batteries run a dish for minutes to an hour |
| Power station | Hours to a day; many switch over fast enough to act as a UPS | Multi-day outages without a way to recharge |
| Generator | Multi-day outages | You can’t run it safely outdoors, or need silent overnight power |
| Solar + battery | Long outages in sunny seasons | Winter in the north, unless sized for December |
| Swap to a Mini | Stretching a small battery: 25–40 W Official spec: From a Starlink specification sheet or help article. Checked Oct 5, 2026 vs the Standard’s range | Your plan doesn’t cover a second dish |
How long it lasts (Standard dish, always on)
| Battery | Standard, AC | Mini, 12 V |
|---|---|---|
| Small power station, about 256 Wh | 1 h 54 min | 4 h 54 min |
| Mid power station, about 512 Wh | 3 h 48 min | 9 h 48 min |
| Large power station, about 1,024 Wh | 7 h 36 min | 19 h 36 min |
| 12 V 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery, 1,280 Wh | 10 h | 25 h 54 min |
| Very large power station, about 2,048 Wh | 15 h 6 min | 39 h 12 min |
Top of Starlink’s average range for each dish; planning assumptions for usable capacity and conversion (methods). Idle is lower (20 W Official spec: From a Starlink specification sheet or help article. Checked Oct 5, 2026 for Standard), so quiet hours stretch it.
Before the outage
- Put the dish power supply and anything between the router and your devices on backup power, or the connection drops at your end.
- Test it: switch off the breaker for a minute and watch.
- Know your runtime: run the numbers.
Run generators outdoors only, far from doors and windows (carbon monoxide). Never back-feed a house through an outlet; that needs a transfer switch fitted by an electrician.
Switching to cellular or a second connection when Starlink itself drops is a different topic (connectivity failover); this page covers keeping the power on.
When this is the wrong choice
- A big UPS is the wrong buy for day-long outages: per watt-hour, a power station or LiFePO4 battery is usually the better value.
Questions people ask
Does Starlink work without electricity?
No. The dish and router need power the whole time. With a battery, UPS, power station or generator it keeps working through a power outage, as long as the satellites are in view.
How long will a power station keep my home Starlink running?
For a Standard dish at the top of its range through an inverter, a 1,024 Wh station gives about 7 h 36 min and a 2,048 Wh station about 15 h 6 min (planning figures).
Can I run Starlink off a generator?
Yes. Plug the power supply into the generator like any appliance. An inverter generator gives cleaner power; a UPS or power station between them rides through the generator starting and stopping.
Sources
- How can I power my Starlink Mini? (Aviation section) · checked Oct 5, 2026
- Standard 4 X Specifications (PDF) · checked Oct 5, 2026
- How much power does my Starlink need? · checked Oct 5, 2026
- Starlink Mini Specifications (PDF) · checked Oct 5, 2026