Best tips to save battery life on any MacBook, so that you can know how to maximise the battery life of your laptop!

• Avoid keeping your MacBook in high ambient temperature environments (eg. a hot car).
• Use a high-quality charger, eg. the stock MacBook charger or from a good brand.
• It’s fine to leave MacBook attached to the charger 90% of the time.
• Disconnect it occasionally and use the battery (eg. disconnect overnight, or use the battery until it drains to 10-15% (or 20-25%) every now and then.)
• If you mainly use battery power, charge it in bursts (if you can) to keep the battery percentage between 20% and 80% (or the sweet spot to keep your battery charged is at between 25% and 85%).
• Although the battery might say it’s at “100%”, in reality it’s actualy less than that. Apple designed the batteries this way with a “soft limit” to maximise longevity.
• Even if you fail to follow any of these guidlines, you probably won’t experience a significant drop in battrey health due to modern li-ion batteries and software (with the exception of head and using a good charger).

Never discharge the battery below 10%

To take care of your devices with battery it is highly recommended that you recharge them when they are at 15-20% (or 20-25%) capacity. And of course, nothing happens if one day you completely drain the battery. The problem occurs when it is a repetitive action.

Store it half-charged when you store it long term

Do not fully charge or fully discharge your device’s battery — charge it to around 50%. If you store a device when its battery is fully discharged, the battery could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding a charge. Conversely, if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may lose some capacity, leading to shorter battery life.

Configure Mac settings to optimise battery health

• Auto appearance
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Appearance > Click “Auto”

• Show battery percentage on control center
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Control Center > Turn On “Show Percentage”

• Turn off location servies access
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services

• Turn off share mac analytics
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements

• Turn off automatically adjust brightness
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Display > Maintain Low Brightness
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Display > Turn Off “Automatically adjust brightness”

• Customise night shift
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Display > Night Shift…

• Turn on low power mode
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Battery > Turn On “Low Power Mode - Only on Battery”

• Turn on optimised battery charging
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Battery > Battery Health (Click info symbol ℹ️) > Turn On “Optimized Battery Charging”

• Turn on optimise video streaming while on battery
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Battery > Options > Turn On “Optimize video streaming while on battery”

• Turn off keyboard brightness
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Keyboard > Turn Off “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light”
• Apple menu  > System Settings > Keyboard > Maintain low keyboard brighness

Resources

• Determine battery cycle count for Mac laptops, Apple
• Get help with your Mac laptop battery, Apple
• Maximizing Battery Life and Lifespan Tips for MacBook, Apple

Screenshots from macOS Ventura Version 13.