How to limit your MacBook's battery charge to 80%

If your MacBook spends its days plugged in, its battery sits near 100% most of the time. Apple says that reducing the time your Mac spends fully charged reduces the wear on its battery and improves its lifespan. Since macOS Tahoe 26.4 there’s a charge limit built into macOS: free, no app needed, with a couple of conditions. Eighty, on Quits, uses that same limit and adds a full charge in 1 click, battery history and, if you ask, limits below 80%.

Why limit your Mac’s battery charge

Lithium-ion batteries age chemically, and as they do, the charge they can hold shrinks: your Mac lasts less away from the wall, and its peak performance drops. How fast that happens depends on the battery’s temperature history and on how it’s charged. Long stretches at 100% speed it up, which is why macOS has Optimized Battery Charging, which learns your routine and delays charging past 80% in certain situations, and since macOS Tahoe 26.4 a fixed charge limit too.

Source: Apple, About Optimized Battery Charging and Charge Limit on Mac, page of 6 April 2026.

How to set a charge limit of 80% without an app

The macOS charge limit needs macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon. To set it:

Choose Apple menu > System Settings.
Click Battery in the sidebar.
Click the Info button next to Charging.
Choose a Charge Limit between 80% and 100%, then click Done.

Your Mac charges to within a few percentage points of the limit, then stops, and the battery menu says it’s charged to the limit. If the charge drops by more than 5% while it’s plugged in, it charges back up to the limit. Now and then, Apple says, it still charges to 100% to keep its estimates of the battery’s charge accurate.

If your Mac meets the requirements, this setting is all you need, and it costs nothing. On a Mac that can’t set a limit, the built-in option is Optimized Battery Charging, from macOS Big Sur 11: it learns your routine and delays charging past 80% in certain situations, but it picks when, not you.

An app for your charge limit: Eighty

The macOS limit is enough to keep the battery away from 100%. Eighty uses the same limit, from 80% to 100%, and adds 4 things:

A full charge, just this once: before a trip, charge to 100% with 1 click, or by a time you pick on the days you travel, then Eighty goes back to your limit.
Lower limits, if you ask: from 20% to 75%, while your Mac is awake with the lid open. That costs about 1 charge cycle a day, so it stays off until you turn it on.
Measured status: you see what the battery is really doing (charging, holding or running down), not just what you asked for.
Health over time: cycles, capacity and history, stored only on your Mac.

Since it’s the macOS limit, it holds while your Mac sleeps, after a restart and with Eighty closed. For the same reason Eighty has the same requirements: macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon. Below 80% macOS can’t go: there Eighty holds the limit itself, only while your Mac is awake, and when it sleeps or you close the lid, the macOS 80% takes over. When you turn Eighty off, it puts back the limit you had set yourself.

Eighty used to be called Voltaica: on macOS 26 and 27 its old limit stopped holding, so we rebuilt it on top of the macOS limit, under a new name, and tested it on real Macs.

Keeping a MacBook always plugged in

With a limit on, once the battery reaches it, your Mac stops charging and runs on power from the adapter. The battery stays at the level you chose instead of at 100% all day, and you don’t have to unplug and plug the cable back in.

When you need the whole battery, for a trip or a day out, raise the macOS limit to 100% and bring it back down afterwards. With Eighty it’s 1 click: a full charge once, then back to your limit on its own.

Battery health and cycle count

macOS shows the condition of the battery in System Settings > Battery, and its cycle count in System Information, under Power. Both are snapshots of today. Eighty also keeps a history of cycles and capacity, so you can see how the battery changes over time. The history stays on your Mac: Eighty doesn’t send it anywhere.

What Eighty costs

Eighty costs $9.99 plus tax, once: no subscription, no ads, no tracking. Until 9 November 2026 the launch price is $4.99. The license covers 5 active Macs, every update is free forever, and if it’s not for you, you have 30 days for a full refund. All the terms are in the House Rules.

Try Eighty in your browser: its page has a Demo that simulates the app, with nothing to install. If you also keep an eye on heat, read how to check your Mac’s CPU temperature.