Deep sleep power consumption external vs internal RTC

[mitchk]

From a power consumption point of view is there any difference using the external RTC source instead of the internal?

[WiFive]

Well you can buy rtc that go down to tens of nanoamps so it depends.

[mitchk]

Thanks that is a good point. I guess my real question is for all of the circuitry within the ESP32 being clocked by the RTC during deep sleep mode is there any difference in power consumption based on whether the internal or external RTC is used. Subtracting the power drawn by the RTC itself.

[WiFive]

What you seem to be asking is what is the difference in power consumption when using the internal 150khz oscillator vs using an external 32.768khz crystal. I'm not sure, but hopefully someone can give you an answer.

[ESP_igrr]

Current consumption of ESP32 will be:

External 32k oscillator < internal 150k oscillator < external 32k XTAL, difference between these options is in 0.5 uA range.

[mitchk]

Thanks!