Apparatuses and techniques are described for controlling a bit line pre-charge voltage in a program operation based on a number of bits per cell, with a goal to reduce peak current consumption. In one aspect, the ramp up of a bit line voltage to an inhibit level is optimized according to the number of bits per cell. The ramp up can involve increasing the bit line voltage from an initial level to a target voltage at a regulated rate, then increasing the bit line voltage from the target voltage to a final voltage at an unregulated rate. In one approach, the regulated ramp rate is less for single-level cell programming compared to multi-level cell programming. The target voltage can also be optimized based on the number of bis per cell.