How to show battery percentage on a Mac

macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27

macOS 26 moved the menu bar's settings out of Control Center settings into their own Menu Bar pane. The steps are the same on macOS 26 and 27:

1. Open System Settings (Apple menu › System Settings).
2. Click Menu Bar in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
3. Under Menu Bar Controls, select Battery if it isn't selected. That puts the battery icon in the menu bar.
4. Click Battery Options, then turn on Show Percentage.

The same Battery Options panel has Show Energy Mode, where you choose when the menu bar shows the energy mode, such as Low Power Mode (Apple, Monitor your Mac laptop's battery). If you'd like to know what that mode does first, see What does Low Power Mode do on a Mac?

macOS 15 Sequoia

On macOS 15, battery settings for the menu bar live in Control Center settings:

1. Open System Settings and click Control Center in the sidebar.
2. Scroll to Battery, under Other Modules.
3. Turn on Show in Menu Bar, then Show Percentage.

Apple's macOS 15 guide gives the same two switches and adds that the energy mode can be shown there too (Apple, macOS 15 version; Change Control Center settings).

If the battery icon isn't in the menu bar

• It's switched off. Select Battery in Menu Bar settings (macOS 26 and 27), or turn on Show in Menu Bar (macOS 15), as above.
• The menu bar is hidden. If the whole menu bar disappears until you move the pointer to the top of the screen, check Automatically hide and show the menu bar. It's in Menu Bar settings on macOS 26 and 27, and in Control Center settings on macOS 15, with the choices Always, On Desktop Only, In Full Screen Only and Never (Apple, Change Menu Bar settings).
• It's been moved, or there's no room. Menu bar icons can be rearranged by holding Command while you drag them, on every version (Apple, What's in the menu bar). On macOS 27, when the menu bar runs out of space, Apple says items "are hidden and replaced with a compact overflow indicator"; click it to see the battery icon (Apple).

Other places macOS shows the battery level

The menu bar is the quickest, but not the only place:

• Control Center. Apple notes "the percentage is always shown when Battery is in Control Center". On macOS 26 and 27, click Control Center in the menu bar, click Edit Controls and drag Battery in from the gallery; Apple lists it among the controls "that don't appear by default". How to customize Control Center has the details. On macOS 15, turn on Show in Control Center for Battery in Control Center settings.
• Battery settings. System Settings › Battery shows "the current battery level and any battery alerts at the top", with a 24-hour chart of the level below (Apple, Change Battery settings).
• Activity Monitor. The Energy tab shows Remaining charge at the bottom, and on battery, Time remaining, "the estimated amount of battery time remaining" (Apple). Our Activity Monitor guide explains the rest of the tab.
• System Information. Hold Option, choose Apple menu › System Information, and click Power. Under Charge Information, State of Charge (%) is the battery level.
• A widget. Control-click the wallpaper, choose Edit Widgets and click Batteries in the gallery's sidebar. The battery widget shows your Mac and its connected Bluetooth accessories; how to add widgets to your Mac desktop covers sizes and placement.

In Terminal

This prints the power source and the battery level. It only reads, needs no password and changes nothing:

pmset -g batt

On our M2 Max MacBook Pro with macOS 27.0.1, plugged in with a Charge Limit of 80%, it printed (battery ID removed):

Now drawing from 'AC Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 80%; AC attached; not charging present: true

On battery, the first line says 'Battery Power' and the state changes to discharging. pmset -g batt is handy in scripts, or when you're connected to a Mac remotely.

Why the percentage sits at 80% or jumps

Once the number is on screen, people notice it doing things. Most have a setting behind them:

• It stops at 80% (or another level) while plugged in. Either Optimized Battery Charging is waiting before it charges past 80% ("Charging On Hold" in the battery menu), or a Charge Limit is set on macOS 26.4 or later ("Charged to 80% Limit"). Click the battery icon to see which, and choose Charge to Full Now if you need 100% (Apple). MacBook not charging when plugged in? covers every message.
• It occasionally goes to 100% anyway. With either feature on, Apple says your Mac charges fully now and then, to keep its battery estimates accurate.
• 100% doesn't last as long as it used to. The percentage is a share of what the battery holds today, not of what it held when new. That's a separate number, Maximum Capacity, in System Settings › Battery › Battery Health. How to check your MacBook's battery health explains it.
• It falls quickly. A fast drop usually means a busy app, a bright screen or something keeping the Mac awake. Start with why is my MacBook battery draining so fast.

While the Mac is charging, the battery menu also shows the estimated time until full at the top. On macOS 26 and 27, Apple notes that "if the charging limit is set below 100%, no estimated time is shown".

How Tend helps

Tend's menu bar icon shows the battery percentage by default, and you can switch it to watts, CPU or CPU temperature in Settings › General › Menu bar shows. Click it for the apps using the most energy right now, in estimated watts. Tend's Battery widget puts the charge, time left, health and cycle count on your desktop or in Notification Center, and on macOS 26 and later its Battery control can sit in Control Center or the menu bar, reading "Battery 80%" and opening Tend's Battery page. All of that is free.

Questions

Related guides

Sources

• Apple, Monitor your Mac laptop's battery (macOS 15, 26 and 27 versions)
• Apple, Change Control Center settings on Mac (macOS 15) and Change Menu Bar settings on Mac (macOS 26 and 27)
• Apple, What's in the menu bar on Mac?, Quickly change settings with Control Center (macOS 27) and What's new for enterprise in macOS 27
• Apple, Use Control Center on Mac (macOS 15, 26 and 27)
• Apple, Change Battery settings on a Mac laptop
• Apple, View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac
• Apple, About Optimized Battery Charging and Charge Limit on Mac
• man pmset, pmset -g batt and System Information on a MacBook Pro (M2 Max) with macOS 27.0.1, 20 October 2026

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