Systems and methods are provided for implementing variable energy regeneration cruise control, which involves dynamically increasing a limit of allowed energy regeneration in order to meet the deceleration need of the vehicle. The system and techniques leverage variable energy regeneration to allow for the additional energy resulting from deceleration to be stored (e.g., in a vehicle battery) for further use rather than being lost. Consequently, by ultimately providing additional stored energy, the disclosed variable energy regeneration cruise control system can realize advantages over conventional cruise control systems. A system can be programmed to dynamically adjust an amount of regenerative energy for decelerating a vehicle while a cruise control is activated. A regenerative braking system can decelerate the vehicle and store an amount of captured energy based on the amount of adjusted regenerative energy.