How to Show Battery Percentage on Mac

By default a MacBook shows only a battery icon in the menu bar, which is hard to read at a glance. A percentage next to it takes a few clicks to turn on.

Open System Settings

Choose Apple menu, System Settings. You can also click the battery icon in the menu bar and choose Battery Settings, then click Control Center in the sidebar.

Click Control Center in the sidebar

Scroll the sidebar if needed and click Control Center. If your sidebar has a Menu Bar item instead, the same battery toggles are listed there.

Scroll to the Battery section

Scroll down the right side of the window until you reach the group labeled Battery. It sits below the Control Center modules, with the other items that can appear in the menu bar.

Turn on Show Percentage

Switch on Show Percentage. Make sure Show in Menu Bar is also on; if it is off, nothing appears in the menu bar at all. The percentage shows immediately, to the left of the battery icon. Turn on Show in Control Center as well if you want the battery listed in Control Center.

Click the battery icon to see what is using power

With the percentage showing, click the battery icon in the menu bar. The menu shows whether the Mac is charging, the power source, and a list of apps using significant energy. Quitting one of those apps is the fastest way to make the number drop more slowly.

If there is no Battery section. Only MacBooks have one. On an iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, or Mac Pro there is no battery, so the setting does not exist. The charge level of a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, or trackpad shows in System Settings, Bluetooth instead.

If you are on macOS Monterey or Big Sur. The setting lives in System Preferences, Dock & Menu Bar, Battery, with the same Show Percentage checkbox. On Catalina and earlier, click the battery icon in the menu bar and choose Show Percentage from the menu.