In our testing, three brands of AA rechargeable batteries—the AmazonBasics AA, Energizer Recharge Universal AA, and Panasonic Eneloop AA—performed about the same. They will keep your lights lit and your clickers clicking longer, can be recharged thousands of times over, and are widely available and inexpensive. We think you should get whichever one of the three is cheapest at the time of checkout.

AA battery capacity

Battery brand Rated capacity (mAh) Measured capacity (mAh) AmazonBasics 2,000 1,862 EBL 2,800 2,413 Energizer Recharge Universal 2,000 1,896 Panasonic Eneloop 2,000 1,940

All three types of batteries have a rated capacity of 2,000 mAh. We tested the capacity out of the box by charging and discharging the batteries on a charger that displayed the capacity, then averaged the results. And in our tests, the true capacities were all too close to make a difference in real-world use. The AmazonBasics AA batteries had an average capacity of 1,862 mAh, the Energizer Recharge Universal AAs had an average capacity of 1,896 mAh, and the Panasonic Eneloop AAs achieved an average capacity of 1,940 mAh.

Though we couldn’t test how the batteries would perform years down the line, we did test how they held up to regular recharging. After draining and recharging a battery from each of our top brands 50 times, we found that all three brands had retained a lot of their capacity. In our testing, we measured capacities of 1,836 mAh (AmazonBasics), 1,833 mAh (Energizer), and 1,850 mAh (Panasonic) after 50 cycles.

The biggest differences showed up when we tested the batteries in real-world uses. Even though all three brands powered a flameless candle for 120 hours, or five days and nights, differences emerged when we tested them with a toy radio-controlled car. The AmazonBasics kept the RC car’s wheels turning for 17 hours, which is the longest of any batteries we tested—and much more time than anyone should ever spend continuously playing with a toy car. When we took the Energizer Recharge Universal AAs out for a spin, they kept their remote-control car racing for 16 hours, and the Panasonic-powered car lasted 15.5 hours.