Find your Mac's battery cycle count and health

A MacBook battery is rated for a number of charge cycles (1,000 for almost every model since 2015) and a maximum capacity that drifts down over time. Knowing where your battery sits on both numbers tells you whether it’s healthy, about to need replacing, or somewhere in between.

How to check

System Information

The most authoritative source.

1. Hold Option and click the Apple menu, then System Information.
2. In the sidebar, click Power.
3. Look for Cycle Count, Condition, Maximum Capacity, and Full Charge Capacity (mAh).

This is what Apple’s own diagnostics see. Cycle Count is the headline number, Maximum Capacity (as a percentage) is what people usually mean by “battery health.”

System Settings > Battery > Battery Health

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Battery in the sidebar.
3. Click the (i) next to Battery Health.

You get a friendlier summary — Maximum Capacity as a percentage and a Condition (Normal, Service Recommended). Less detail than System Information but easier to read.

Terminal

system_profiler SPPowerDataType

Same data, scriptable. Useful if you want to log it over time:

system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -E ‘Cycle Count|Maximum Capacity|Condition’

A menu bar monitor

For ongoing awareness, a menubar battery readout that includes health (not just current charge) is convenient. Beacon includes battery cycle count and max capacity in its battery detail panel.

1. Install Beacon.
2. Enable Battery in Settings > Menu Bar.
3. Click the battery readout — you'll see cycle count, current charge, max capacity, and time-to-empty / time-to-full.

How to read the numbers

A few rules of thumb:

• Cycle Count — Apple rates modern Macs for 1,000 cycles to 80% capacity. A 3-year-old laptop with 400 cycles is fine. A 1-year-old with 800 cycles has had a hard life.
• Maximum Capacity — what your battery can hold now versus when new. 90%+ after a year is normal. Below 80% combined with “Service Recommended” is replacement territory.
• Condition: Service Recommended — Apple’s polite way of saying “this battery is worn enough that you’ll notice.” Time for a replacement if you depend on the laptop’s runtime.

To keep cycle accumulation low: enable Optimized Battery Charging (System Settings > Battery), avoid leaving the laptop plugged in at 100% all day if you can, and don’t worry about partial cycles — modern lithium chemistries don’t have a “memory effect.” A cycle is a full 100% of capacity consumed cumulatively, not one plug/unplug.