this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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Depends on how long and hard you want to run it.
A Pi5 uses a 5V 3A charger. Four AA batteries in series should give you 4-6V (the voltage changes as they discharge) and around 2A (going by the labelling on my rechargeables). So you might be able to run a Pi5 at full throttle for an hour or so given 8 AAs. There would be some loss at the buck-boost converter you'd need to guarantee an output of exactly 5V.
Using four Ds instead would simplify the wiring a bit and keep it running longer.
5V 3A is the bare minimum and 5V 5A is the recommended btw