macOS keeps 10 days of battery history, in the Battery settings. It shows the charge level, the times on power and the time the screen was on. It does not keep anything older, and it does not cover your other devices. Here is where the charts are, how to read them, and how to keep more.
Open the battery history
- Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
- Click Battery in the sidebar.
- Scroll to the charts.
- Click Last 24 Hours or Last 10 Days.
The steps are the same in macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe. A desktop Mac has no battery, so it has no Battery page.
Read the charts
| Chart | Range | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Battery Level | Last 24 Hours | The charge, as an average for each 15 minutes. The shaded areas are the times when the Mac was charging |
| Screen On Usage | Last 24 Hours | How long the display was on in each hour |
| Energy Usage | Last 10 Days | How much energy the Mac used each day |
| Screen On Usage | Last 10 Days | How long the display was on each day |
Three patterns are worth a look.
- A steep drop with the screen on is normal use. Compare it with the same hours on another day.
- A drop with the screen off means the Mac used power while it was asleep.
- Short shaded areas all day mean the Mac was on and off its charger many times.
What macOS does not keep
- Nothing past 10 days. You cannot compare this month with the last one.
- No list of charges. The chart shades the times on power for one day. There is no record of when each charge started and where it stopped.
- No history of battery health. Maximum capacity and the cycle count are shown as they are today. See how to check battery health on a Mac and how to check a MacBook’s battery cycle count.
- Only this Mac. There is no history for your iPhone, your AirPods or your mouse.
- Nothing to export.
Why a longer history is useful
A battery ages over months, and 10 days do not show it.
- Health over time. A battery that goes from 92% to 88% maximum capacity in a year is normal. The same drop in two months is not, and you only see the difference with a record.
- Cycles per month. Apple designs current MacBook batteries to keep up to 80% of their capacity at 1000 cycles. The rate at which you add cycles tells you how many years that is. See what a battery charge cycle is.
- How long a charge lasts. If a mouse that lasted six weeks now lasts three, its battery is wearing out.
Keep a battery history for longer
BatteryBud is a battery monitor for Mac. It records the level of each device and keeps the record on your Mac.
- Charts by day, week, month and year, for every device it shows, not only this Mac.
- Charging sessions. A list of each charge.
- Battery health over time. Maximum capacity and charge cycles for your Mac, iPhone and iPad, charted, with an alert when the capacity drops below a level you pick.
The history starts on the day you install BatteryBud. It cannot read the days before that, because macOS does not keep them.
BatteryBud does not show energy use for each app. For that, click the battery icon in the menu bar, which lists the apps that use significant energy, or open Activity Monitor and click Energy.
To get a warning before the level is low, see how to get a low battery notification at the level you want.