The invention to a battery-driven screwdriver (10) comprising a housing (12, 18) having a grip (14), more particularly with a permanently built-in rechargeable battery (40), in addition to charge contact tongues (37) for charging the rechargeable battery (40). Said battery-driven screwdriver is particularly characterized in that it is compact and light and in that counter contacts (34) are provided instead of a fixed box-like standard on/off switch on the machine side, a contact plate (32) being assigned to said counter contacts. The contact plate can be moved by means of an on/off button (26) thereby coupling it to the counter contacts (34) and enabling it to be easily released when said button is let loose.