What macOS shows on its own
- Condition: System Settings, Battery, Battery Health shows Normal, or Service Recommended when the battery holds less charge than when it was new or isn’t working normally.
- Maximum Capacity: click the Info button next to the condition. It’s the battery’s capacity compared with when it was new, as a percentage. Depending on your model, the same panel has the battery longevity setting.
- Cycle count: hold Option, click the Apple menu, choose System Information, then Power. Cycle Count is under Battery Information, next to Condition and Maximum Capacity.
Apple designs Mac batteries to keep up to 80% of their original capacity at their maximum cycle count, which is 1,000 on recent Mac laptops (older ones vary; Apple lists them by model). None of these numbers are in the menu bar; you look them up when you think of it.
How Multimeter shows it
- Multimeter reads the cycle count and the battery’s full-charge and design capacities from the Mac’s battery controller. Health is full-charge capacity divided by design capacity, which lands within about a point of the Maximum Capacity figure macOS shows.
- The built-in battery faces show the charge: percent, time left, time until full. None of the 35 built-in faces draws health or cycle count, and the meter’s menu doesn’t list them.
- Every face receives them anyway, as
battery.health(0 to 1) andbattery.cycleCount, whatever source the meter follows. A face you build can show either one. Creating meters lists every field a face gets. - Multimeter doesn’t show the Normal or Service Recommended condition and keeps no history of how health changes over time.
Set it up
- Check health and cycle count once in System Settings and System Information (above), so you know your starting point.
- In Multimeter’s Settings, click Create Face… (Option-Command-N). You get a folder of starter files for a small working face.
- Edit it in any code editor to show battery.health as a percent, or battery.cycleCount as a number.
- Add a battery meter that uses your face, next to your usual battery meter with Time Until or Percent Full.
Every face works with every source it lists. See all 35 faces running live.
What the numbers mean
Cycle count goes up by one each time you’ve used 100% of the battery’s capacity in total, not each time you plug in. Two days of running from 100% to 50% count as one cycle.
Health (Maximum Capacity) falls slowly with cycles, heat and time. A battery at 85% holds 85% of what it held new, so the same work gives you less time per charge. Charging habits matter: macOS’s Optimized Charging and charge limiters like AlDente hold the battery below full to slow that down. For a health history over months, see how Multimeter compares with coconutBattery.
Limits
Desktop Macs have no battery. If a Mac doesn’t report a value, that field is empty and your face should show a dash. Multimeter reads health and never changes how the battery charges.
Questions
How do I check my MacBook battery health?
Open System Settings, click Battery, and look at Battery Health. Click the Info button next to it to see Maximum Capacity.
How do I check my Mac’s battery cycle count?
Hold Option, click the Apple menu, choose System Information, then select Power. The cycle count is under Battery Information.
Can Multimeter show battery health or cycle count?
Not in its built-in faces. The battery data every face receives includes cycle count and health, so a face you build can show them in the menu bar. Multimeter keeps no battery history.
Does Multimeter change how my battery charges?
No. Multimeter only measures. To hold the charge below 100%, use macOS’s Optimized Charging or a charge limiter like AlDente.