Techniques are provided for operating a computing system in a peak power mode while avoiding increased degradation of a battery. The peak power mode include cycles with peak and off-peak currents. The amplitude and duration of the peak and off-peak currents are governed by a thermal/heat budget of the battery. A processor can read the battery information during usage and calculate one or more parameters which are derived from heat. If a parameter is smaller than a reference value, the processor can update the peak power parameters to provide an increase in peak current/power and/or duration. If a parameter is larger than the reference value, no heat budget is available to provide an increase in peak current/power and/or duration. The thermal/heat budget can be enforced over each cycle of the peak power mode or in a summation over multiple cycles.