Techniques for communications based power management are described. An apparatus may comprise a managed power system having a communications sub-system and a computing sub-system, the communications sub-system to include a network state module operative to determine communications power state information, and send a power management message with the communications power state information. The apparatus may further comprise a power management module to receive the power management message, retrieve the communications power state information from the power management message, and manage power states for the computing sub-system based on the communications power state information. Other embodiments are described and claimed.