Check MacBook Battery Health

Read Your Maximum Capacity (macOS Ventura and later)

1. Open the Apple menu → System Settings.
2. Click Battery in the sidebar.
3. Click the info button (ⓘ) next to Battery Health.
4. Read Maximum Capacity — the percentage of the original capacity the battery still holds.

On macOS Monterey and earlier the path is System Preferences → Battery → Battery Health. On much older versions, hold Option and click the battery icon in the menu bar to see the condition summary.

Read Your Cycle Count

1. Hold Option and click the Apple menu.
2. Choose System Information (it replaces "About This Mac" while Option is held).
3. Select Power in the sidebar.
4. Find Cycle Count under Battery Information, along with Condition and full charge capacity in mAh.

A charge cycle is one full battery's worth of use, not one plug-in. Draining to 50 percent and recharging twice counts as a single cycle, which is why cycle counts climb slower than people expect.

What the Numbers Mean

• 90 percent and above — effectively like new. Typical of a machine under a year old or lightly used.
• 85 to 89 percent — normal wear for a two to three year old MacBook. Nothing to worry about.
• 80 to 84 percent — noticeably reduced runtime. A replacement is worth planning for.
• Below 80 percent — macOS flags Service Recommended. Apple considers the battery consumed.

For cycle count, all MacBooks from 2010 onward are rated at 1000 cycles. Under 300 is excellent, 300 to 800 is ordinary for a used machine, and near or past 1000 means end of life regardless of what the capacity percentage says.

Battery condition messages

• Normal — functioning as expected.
• Service Recommended — capacity has fallen below roughly 80 percent, or the battery no longer holds charge reliably. The Mac still works.
• Service Battery (older macOS) — the same warning under the previous naming.

Check Before Your Warranty or AppleCare Expires

If Maximum Capacity has dropped below 80 percent while the Mac is still covered by warranty or AppleCare+, Apple replaces the battery at no charge. This is worth checking deliberately, because the threshold is often crossed quietly in year two or three:

1. Read your Maximum Capacity using the steps above.
2. If it is below 80 percent, look up your coverage on Apple's Check Coverage page using the serial number (Apple menu → About This Mac).
3. If you are still covered, book a battery replacement before the coverage lapses.

Get More Detail with coconutBattery

The free coconutBattery app reports everything macOS shows plus the manufacture date, current capacity in mAh against the design figure, charging wattage, and the battery's temperature. It is the standard tool for checking whether a used MacBook's battery has already been replaced — a battery manufactured well after the Mac itself is a good sign, not a bad one.

Buying a Used MacBook?

Battery health is the first thing to check, and the easiest for a listing to misrepresent — screenshots can be edited, so read the figures on the machine itself while you have it in front of you. Aim for 85 percent or higher and under 500 cycles for a fair price; below 80 percent, factor a replacement into your offer.

Battery is only one of nine things worth checking before you pay. Work through the used laptop checklist to cover the screen, keyboard, camera, speakers and GPU as well — the whole sequence runs in the browser in about ten minutes.

Making the Battery Last Longer

• Leave Optimised Battery Charging on. It learns your routine and holds the charge below 100 percent until you need it, which is where most avoidable wear comes from.
• Use the 80 percent limit on recent models if the Mac mostly lives plugged in at a desk.
• Lower the display brightness. The screen is the largest single power draw — the brightness test helps find a comfortable lower level.
• Watch which GPU is active. An app pinned to a discrete GPU drains far faster; the GPU test shows what is in use.
• Avoid heat. Sustained high temperature degrades lithium-ion cells faster than cycle count does.

Frequently Asked Questions