Methods, systems, and devices for power control for boot-up of memory systems are described. A memory system may be configured to boot-up using two different power modes: a lower-power mode, and a higher-power mode. The memory system may perform a series of evaluations to determine whether the memory system is to switch to the lower-power mode during boot-up operations, or stay in the higher-power mode. For example, the memory system may check one or more of: a history of previous boot-up failures, a voltage of an associated power management integrated circuit, a history of asynchronous power loss at the device, a power-mode configuration of the host device, or a history of host-initiated power-down commands. In some examples, by switching to the lower-power mode, the memory system may avoid repeatedly failing multiple boot-up cycles and may instead successfully boot-up the memory system.