Method for operating a hybrid drive, in particular a parallel hybrid drive of a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine and at least one electric drive which are connected to one another via a coupling, at least one energy store and a vehicle transmission, wherein the at least one electric drive can be disconnected from the vehicle transmission by means of a clutch wherein during deceleration phases in which a transmission input torque (T GE,gef) which is requested on the transmission input side is < 0 the internal combustion engine is either in the overrun mode 1 or is operated with a minimum drive torque (T VB,min), characterized in that a braking strategy which is implemented within a braking function mode determines the energetically most favourable variant of the operation of the internal combustion engine in the overrun mode 1 or with minimum drive torque (T VB,min) on the basis of a cost comparison of for the extraction of energy (E EM,1) for overrun operation of the internal combustion engine on the basis of C 1 = E EM,1 · C Batt where C 1 is costs of the extraction of energy from the at least one energy store E EM,1 is energy extracted from the at least one energy store by an electric machine in the motor mode and C Batt is the price of the energy extracted from the at least one energy store, which price reflects the life cycle of the at least one energy store by taking into account the battery cycles in terms of providing drive and braking as well as the charging and discharging processes, and for energy fed into the at least one energy store on the basis of C 2 = C VB − E EM,2 • C VB E VB, inner where C 2 is costs of the energy fed into the at least one energy store E EM,2 is energy fed into the at least one energy store when the electric machine is operated in the generator mode, C VB is drive energy of the internal combustion engine, E VB,inner is internal energy of the internal combustion engine for overcoming a drag torque and for making available an external torque, and in that factors (C 1) and (C 2) which are present on the input side are compared in a comparator stage, wherein the factors (C VB), (E EM,2) and (E VB,inner) are transmitted from a logic operation stage to a fourth summing point, to which the cost factor (C VB) for the drive energy of the internal combustion engine is positively added, and a product of (E EM,1) and (C Batt) which is formed in a second multiplier is present. C 1 is costs of the extraction of energy from the at least one energy store E EM,1 is energy extracted from the at least one energy store by an electric machine in the motor mode and C Batt is the price of the energy extracted from the at least one energy store, which price reflects the life cycle of the at least one energy store by taking into account the battery cycles in terms of providing drive and braking as well as the charging and discharging processes, C 2 is costs of the energy fed into the at least one energy store E EM,2 is energy fed into the at least one energy store when the electric machine is operated in the generator mode, C VB is drive energy of the internal combustion engine, E VB,inner is internal energy of the internal combustion engine for overcoming a drag torque and for making available an external torque, and in that factors (C 1) and (C 2) which are present on the input side are compared in a comparator stage, wherein the factors (C VB), (E EM,2) and (E VB,inner) are transmitted from a logic operation stage to a fourth summing point, to which the cost factor (C VB) for the drive energy of the internal combustion engine is positively added, and a product of (E EM,1) and (C Batt) which is formed in a second multiplier is present.