What macOS shows on its own
The battery icon in the menu bar shows the percentage (turn it on in System Settings, Menu Bar, Battery, Battery Options on macOS 26 Tahoe and later). While charging, its menu shows the time until full, unless you’ve set a charging limit below 100%. On battery, it shows no time estimate. Apple removed that in macOS Sierra 10.12.2, saying the estimate couldn’t keep up with the way people use their Macs.
The estimate is still there if you know where to look:
- Activity Monitor: open the Energy tab. At the bottom you’ll see Remaining charge, plus Time remaining on battery or Time until full while plugged in.
- Terminal: run
pmset -g batt. On battery it prints a line like “82%; discharging; 5:12 remaining”. Right after you unplug it may say “(no estimate)” while macOS measures your power use.
Both work, but you have to go and look. Neither stays on screen.
How Multimeter shows it
- Multimeter shows macOS’s own estimate, the same number Activity Monitor and pmset report, so it doesn’t disagree with your Mac.
- The Time Until face shows hours and minutes left on battery, and the time until full with a bolt while charging. A bar shows the charge.
- When the Mac is plugged in but not charging (held at a limit by Optimized Charging, for example), there is no real estimate, so Time Until shows the percentage instead of a meaningless 0:00. While macOS is still estimating, it shows dashes.
- It updates the moment macOS reports a change to the battery, with a slow check every 30 seconds to catch the estimate drifting.
- Low-battery alerts default to a warning below 20% and critical below 10%, and you can turn on a notification for critical.
Set it up
- Open Multimeter. A battery meter is there on first launch.
- Choose Customize This Meter… from its menu and pick the Time Until face.
- Keep a second battery meter with Percent Full if you want the percentage too (Add Meter…, then Battery).
- Set the warning and critical levels and turn on the notification for critical.
Every face works with every source it lists. See all 35 faces running live.
Why the estimate jumps around
Time remaining is a guess based on how much power your Mac is using right now. Open a video call or start a build and the draw goes up, so the estimate drops; close them and it climbs back. That’s the reason Apple gave for taking it out of the menu.
Put a Power Draw meter next to it and you can see why: when the watts jump, the time left falls.
Limits
Desktop Macs have no battery, so there’s nothing to estimate; the meter shows “No battery”. The estimate is macOS’s, so it moves as your workload changes.
Questions
Why did my Mac stop showing battery time remaining?
Apple took it out of the battery menu in macOS Sierra 10.12.2 in December 2016 and hasn’t brought it back, including in macOS 26 Tahoe. The estimate still exists: Activity Monitor’s Energy tab and pmset -g batt in Terminal both show it.
How do I check battery time remaining on a MacBook without an app?
Open Activity Monitor and click the Energy tab; Time remaining is at the bottom while you’re on battery. Or run pmset -g batt in Terminal.
Can the menu bar show time until full while charging?
The system battery menu shows it when you click it, unless a charging limit below 100% is set. Multimeter’s Time Until face shows it in the menu bar all the time, with a charging bolt.
Is the time remaining accurate?
It’s an estimate from your current power use, so it changes when your workload changes. A Power Draw meter next to it shows you why it moved.