MacBook Air m1 battery reduced to 98%

Batteries are considered Consumable Products. Over time it will degrade to a point where it needs to be replaced. In you case - the usage is normal as the capacity will go up and down all the time and never stay always at 100%. Apple Batteries are rated for 1000 Full Battery Cycles and / or 80% Capacity before needing Evaluation or replacement.

For additional reading on Battery and Apple Computers this link may help. About battery health management in Mac notebooks and especially for the M1 and Big Sur If battery charging is paused or on hold on your Mac

For the record, mine is still at 100% after 34 cycles. I would like to point out that although it's normal for battery health to deplete over time, the key variable of interest here is the rate at which it depletes relative to the number of cycles. If I understand correctly, these batteries are supposed to take ~1000 cycles to deplete to 80% health. That works out to a 1% drop per ~50 cycles. So you should expect your first drop to 99% after ~50 cycles; 98% after ~100 cycles; 96% after ~200 cycles; 90% after ~500 cycles; etc. So if anyone's battery health is dropping at a significantly higher rate than that, it is not normal and should probably be serviced or at least checked out.

Geordiedude wrote:

I’m at 87 cycles and 91% not happy

Rechargeable batteries can lose some initial charge quickly and the last for a long time at that level before losing capacity, some will hold initial capacity for a long time and then start to lose capacity, some will start slowly losing capacity from day one, and any other possible combinations.  It is just the nature of rechargeable batteries and no one can predict how any one battery will age.

FWIW, don't try to micromanage your battery and just use the Mac.  If you reach a point in time where the working time on battery is not long enough to meet your needs, then start to worry or just get the battery replaced.

The behaviour you describe is normal. Please review Check the condition of your Mac notebook’s battery - Apple Support.

I have been also a big fan of this M1 Mac and bought it last year in Feb 2021. Few things I noticed since then.

• My old MacBooks were doing ok charging with fast charger/Regular charger
• This M1 Mac is suffering form battery degradation even with the given apple charger (forget about fast charging)
• I remember for first 30-35 cycle my battery gone down like 2% already
• I Like the Magnetic snapping charging tips (generally sells on amazon and good for convince and not so good for charging speed as it has only 5v1A max output)
• Now my all device has it since I can just use one magnetic cable and (since one part stays inserted in the devices ,it may be apple or usb c or usb micro ) I only have to carry one cable anywhere I go or even in my car bcz of this.
• After using this super slow charger with low battery use checked in settings here is my battery cycle count after one year and 5 months along with some SSD read write number to probably compare my usage.
• My battery Cycle count has gone so up after that but the battery degradation has not too much. just 8 % in almost 210 cycle.(surely not good as my last generation apple MacBooks but doing good so far if you can live with overnight charging)
• I was a heavy chrome user but after knowing the battery situation and how it just drains my battery I decided to switch everything to safari and added all the extension and stuff. I am happy that safari has almost all the most common extension available for ad blocking and video speed controller etc.(no more bookmark sync between chrome and safari )

its not really a problem, don't worry about it. If you do the math the amount of cycles you used / 1000 is about 98-99%.

I would just be careful with the amount of times you charge your device. I use ALdente to stop my M1 Pro from charging past 55% and to depend on the power supply if I am working on a desk for a long period of time.

just avoid combo killing the battery as the heat from your cores will kill it pretty fast

example of a basic stack for dev:

• photoshop + final cut + docker + vscode + xcode + ios & android simulator + chrome a few tabs with youtube videos + sidecar
• you're better of charging your laptop in those cases as it will last around 7-8 hours (40-50% of 20hrs) if you're lucky
• some apps / plugins may cause lots cpu usage as well, use activity monitor to stop them if you can
• u see below 16G memory with just a few basic applications, not even running docker or xcode or photo editor (you'll never know until you test with your real scenarios) - opt out beta program may help a bit if you run many apps without needing them

Actually, relative to Apple's claim of "1000 cycles to reach 80%" you're doing pretty well. That would entail a 1% drop every ~50 cycles, so the fact that you got to 62 cycles before it dropped to 99% means you're on a good track so far. The fact that it happened after you upgraded to Monterey could just be a coincidence, because you were otherwise 'due'. Still worth keeping an eye on it though to ensure it doesn't now start dropping faster than it should. Cheers.

Again, a 1% drop every 3 months will last you 5 years until it reaches 80%, and getting to 62 cycles before it dropped to 99% is actually better than what the batteries are rated for. So at this point you're overreacting, and out of all the people who have posted their battery health statistics in this thread, yours are the least concerning. But again, by all means do keep an eye on it in case the deterioration starts accelerating, as seems to be the case with Geordiedude.

If one believes there is a Real Issue >> Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider << nearest your location and have it Evaluated. Just fill in the Country and City information.

IMHO - the explanations provided will prove battery is fine.

Rajchandela wrote:

Same thing happened to me also but i only have 31 cycles Apple should have to listen our concerns

If you truly believe that this is an issue, contact Apple Directly (Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support) or set up a Genius Bar appointment at the nearest Apple Store or at the nearest Apple Authorized Service Provider and have the Mac evaluated.

BTW, "Apple" is not here. We are just user like yourself trying to help other users.

You cannot - ever - expect a battery to stay at 100%. That is not how they work. They lose a little all the time and, depending on how you use it/need a little or a lot of power for your tasks - that will happen over time.

The battery in your little alarm clock, portable CD player, or whatever, also loses power and needs to be replaced at some point.

Mine has kept dropping I contacted apple last night and got a case number in the time I was on to them it dropped from 95% to 94% with 81 cycles my advice is contact apple on chat the more of us that do the better

same problem faced by me also

and now my battery percentage further reduced to 95 and now only 3 months are left for my warranty end and when i contacted apple support they told me that its ok till it reduces to 80% (claim that after it reached 80% it would take 1000 charging cycle to reduce further )

i wasn’t happy with answer but has no option !!

I realize I'm in the wrong forum since I have an M1 MacBook Pro. But it's at 94% after 27 cycles. I bought/downloaded a nifty battery app called "coconutBattery" that dives deeper into battery health. It shows that it's constantly fluctuating. Right now it shows me at 94.6% of the Design Capacity, before my last cycle it was something like 95.2%.

Current Charge - 4791 mAh

Full Charge Capacity - 4828 mAh

Design Capacity - 5103 mAh

Manufacture Date - 3/22/21

Age - 233 Days

MacOS battery status - Good

Interestingly enough, it can also show my phones battery. Got my iPhone 12 Pro on launch day, not quite a power user, but use it a lot. Was down to 90% capacity after 12 months, now it's at 92% capacity. I'm guessing software has something to do with these numbers, maybe Apple is always tweaking how it calculates battery life.