Windows 10 and Windows 11 have three default power plans—balanced, power saver, and high-performance. You can switch between these power plans as and when needed with just a couple of clicks. For a vast majority of users, one of these power plans is all you need. However, what if you have a specific use case and want to create your own power plan that caters to your needs? For example, maybe you want a high-performance power plan with custom sleep & screen off timers, brightness settings, specific multimedia settings, WiFi power settings, etc. This level of customization allows you to fine-tune your system’s performance and energy usage to perfectly match your workflow.
While most don’t know this, you can actually create a custom power plan on Windows using Control Panel. This feature works for both Windows 10 and 11, giving you granular control over your system’s power management. In this quick and easy tutorial, I will show you how to make your own custom power plan to meet your specific needs. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- You need administrator rights to create or modify power plans in Windows.
- The steps below are tested to work on Windows 11 and Windows 10.
Steps To Create a New Power Plan in Windows 11 & 10
- Press the Start button to open the Start menu.
- Search and open the “Control Panel“.
- Select “Large icons” from the “View by” dropdown.
- Find and click the “Power options” option.
- Click the “Create power plan” link on the sidebar.
- Select an existing power plan as the base and click “Next“.
- Enter a name in the “Plan name” field and click “Next“.
- Set up the screen off & sleep timers.
- Click the “Create” button.
- With that, you’ve created a custom power plan.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, open the Control Panel window. You can do that by searching for “Control Panel” in the Start menu. After opening it, select “Large icons” from the “View by” dropdown menu on the top right corner and then click the “Power options” option.
Note: If you don’t change the view to “Large icons”, you will not see the “Power Options” option.

Click the “Create power plan” link on the left sidebar of the power plan page in the Control Panel.

Here, Windows will ask you to choose a base power plan that acts as a template. Select it, enter a name in the “Plan name” field, and click “Next“. For example, I want my base plan to the “Balanced”. So, I selected it.

On this page, customize the screen off and sleep timers and click the “Create” button.

That is all. As soon as you click the “Create” button, the new power plan is created. In fact, the new power plan is automatically activated. You can see that in the Control Panel.

If you want to further customize the power plan, click the “Change plan settings” link next to the newly created power plan.

Here, click the “Change advanced power settings” link to change the advanced power settings.

This action will open the advanced settings window where you can change the sleep, hibernation, display, battery, and other settings. Depending on your selected base plan, system hardware, and whether you are using a desktop or laptop, the options you see in this window will be different.
Once done, click the “OK” button and you are done.

That is it. It is that simple to create a custom power plan in Windows 11 and Windows 10. You can change to this power plan as and when needed using Control Panel.
Delete a Power Plan in Windows 11 & 10
Note: You cannot delete the three default power plans (balanced, power saver, and high performance).
If you no longer need the custom power plan, you can delete it just as easily. Here’s how.
- Open the Control Panel app.
- Change “View by” to “Large icons“.
- Find and click on the “Power options” link.
- Select a default power plan. Balanced, for example.
- Next, click the “Change plan settings” link next to the custom power plan.
- Click the “Delete this plan” option at the bottom.
- The custom power plan is instantly deleted.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
To start off, launch the Control Panel window by searching for it in the Start menu. In the Control Panel window, click “Power Options“. If you don’t see this option, make sure the “Large icons” option is selected in the “View by” dropdown menu.

Before deleting the custom power plan, select another default plan. Next, click the “Change plan settings” option next to your custom power plan.

Next, click the “Delete this plan” option and you are done. This action deletes the custom power plan instantly.

Wrapping Up — Creating Custom Power Plan on Windows
As you can see, thanks to the built-in options in Windows 11 and Windows 10, you can easily create a power plan that caters to your specific needs. Of course, when you don’t need this custom plan, you can delete it quite easily. Do keep in mind that when you select the custom power plan, you will be unable to change the “Power mode” in the Settings app. You have to change it via the Control Panel.
That is all. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.