How much do you use your Mac daily? More important, how many times do you charge and discharge your MacBook? These are some of the things that will determine your MacBook battery’s health and battery cycle count. These two metrics are a good way to know whether you need to get your Mac’s battery replaced/serviced or not. Here’s how to check Mac’s battery health and cycle count quickly and what do the numbers tell?
Check Your Mac’s Battery Health
Most modern day machines use a lithium-ion battery that you can recharge. But with every charge, they degrade over time to a point where you need to replace them. There are plenty of good videos on YouTube that explain how lithium-ion batteries work so I won’t go there.
A few factors that contribute to the battery’s health are:
- charging pattern
- age of battery
- temperature
MacBooks come with a feature called Optimized Battery Charging that was introduced with Big Sur. What it does is learn your usage and charging patterns or habits and then delay charging once your Mac is charged 80% sometimes. This is done to prolong the battery’s lifespan by reducing load and extra wear and tear caused by overcharging, overheating, etc. Most smartphones have this feature too but by different names.
There is a simple software trick to know the health of your MacBook’s battery.
- Click on Apple icon in the top-left corner.
- Select System Settings.
- Select Battery from the left sidebar.
- Click on the i icon next to Battery Health to see a pop-up.
Everything is good if your battery condition is Normal. That means your Mac’s battery is functioning as it should.
Now my Maximum Capacity shows 86%. That might worry you but it shouldn’t. As your MacBook gets older, the more you use, and the more you charge it, max capacity goes down. This is because Macs are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity even when you have completed 1000 charge cycle.
Wait, what is a charge cycle? One full charge cycle is when you charge your Mac to 100%, deplete battery to zero and then charge it back to 100%. If you charge Mac from 50% to 100% two times, that’s one charge cycle. That way, you can charge your Mac up to 1000 cycles and it will retain 80% of its max capacity till then.
My max capacity is good but the moment it goes below 80%, I will need a servicing or replacement. This brings us to the next point in check Mac’s battery health which is battery’s cycle count.
Must Read:
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- Extend your MacBook’s Life with These Battery Saver Apps
Check Your Mac’s Cycle Count
The cycle count of your MacBook’s battery is another key indicator of battery health. As discussed earlier, every time you charge your Mac fully, it counts as one cycle count. Also, Macs with M series silicon chips carry batteries designed to retain 80% battery capacity up to 1000 cycle count. A full charge means you charged the battery fully once – full charge cycle. An example can be – it will be considered as one full charge cycle if your recharge Mac’s battery from 75% to 100% four times (25% x 4 = 100%).
So how many cycle counts do you have left? Let’s find out.
- Press and hold the Option button, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, and select System Information. You won’t find it if you are not pressing the Option key.
- Click on Hardware menu to expand it in the left sidebar. Select Power.
- You will find Cycle Count under Health Information.
So my battery cycle count is 332 which means it has been fully recharged and discharged that many times. I still have a good number of cycle counts left. Sadly, my M1 Air is now 3 years old and I may upgrade to M3 next year. The performance is beginning to take a hit but that’s a story for another time.
Every MacBook comes with a one-year battery warranty but then most of you won’t have to replace or repair your Mac’s battery within the first year anyway.
And that’s it, folks.
