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Apple Brings iPhone-Style Battery Charge Limits to the Mac in macOS Tahoe 26.4

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The macOS Tahoe 26.4 beta that Apple released today includes a Charge Limit feature for the Mac. There is a new slider bar that lets Mac users select a charge level from 80 percent to 100 percent.

macos-26-4-charge-limit.jpg

The Charge Limit is a setting that's available in addition to Optimized Battery Charging, and it can prevent a Mac from ever charging to 100 percent.

Apple's existing Optimized Battery Charging feature keeps a Mac from charging to 100 percent until it's needed for use, with the option using your daily charging routine to determine when to charge to full. While Optimized Battery Charging can help preserve battery life, it still regularly allows a Mac to charge to 100 percent.

The new Charge Limit feature is a hard restriction that keeps a Mac's battery at 80 percent, 85 percent, 90 percent, 95 percent, or 100 percent, giving users more control over the Mac's maximum charging level. Keeping a Mac's battery at 80 percent could increase battery longevity by preserving battery health over time.

Charge Limit can be enabled by opening up the System Settings app, going to Battery, and clicking on the "i" button next to Charging.

Apple's iPhones have had a charge limit feature since the iPhone 15 lineup launched in 2023.

Article Link: Apple Brings iPhone-Style Battery Charge Limits to the Mac in macOS Tahoe 26.4
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/16/mac-charge-limit-macos-tahoe-26-4/
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Macusercom said:
Been using AlDente, especially since I mostly have it plugged in. It really helps preserving battery longevity
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I honestly don’t know to what degree it helps. I never used it when I got my MBA brand new in 2015 and the device went years without any battery issues. Have been using AlDente for a good while now. What annoys me about the app is they must be pushing a new update for the app once a month. Who knows what the hell they’re up to tbh. This many updates this often for an app like this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In that sense I’m kind of glad it’ll be getting sherlocked.

Edit: and yes, Apple sherlocking apps without warning or compensation makes Apple execs dicks, but what can ya do. Steve was known to be a dick so it makes sense Apple his company would be full of dicks 😅
 
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i have my M1 Pro MBP since launch and AlDente has been amazing for me. basically i keep it always plugged in and set the charge limit to 50% which is apparently the best for long term battery health. I do calibration every few months (charge it up to 100% keep it there, discharge to 15% and charge back up or something like that). macOS says my battery health is at 99% with 83 cycles. probably would've been at 800-1000 cycles by now if i just charged it regularly when i needed to (being plugged in all the time makes no difference to me).

i wish apple would let us set the charge limit ourselves and i wouldn't have to use AlDente to do it myself to 50%. maybe one day
 
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Mac Fly (film) said:
I think Optimized Battery Charging helped a lot with battery health in our phones.
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Agreed in theory if it was consistent/ reliable. After my iP spent 4 weeks "learning" my charging pattern at home, all criteria boxes checked, optimised charging worked only for 6 months. It worked well in that time tethered to a 5W charger at night to 80%, then charging to 100% within the last couple hours before the morning alarm went off.

Absolutely consistent...until one day it just stopped.

ps AlDente user since MBP 2023
 
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JamesMcFlyJR said:
i have my M1 Pro MBP since launch and AlDente has been amazing for me. basically i keep it always plugged in and set the charge limit to 50% which is apparently the best for long term battery health. I do calibration every few months (charge it up to 100% keep it there, discharge to 15% and charge back up or something like that). macOS says my battery health is at 99% with 83 cycles. probably would've been at 800-1000 cycles by now if i just charged it regularly when i needed to (being plugged in all the time makes no difference to me).

i wish apple would let us set the charge limit ourselves and i wouldn't have to use AlDente to do it myself to 50%. maybe one day
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You’re worrying far too much about your battery. And no, there’s no evidence charging it just to 50% is best for long term battery health. (they are not talking about long-term storage—they're using the laptop)

Randomly off the top of my head I’d say there’s an argument to be had that charging repeatedly only to 50% of capacity may give you the opposite intended outcome. You might want to up that to at least 80%. My AlDente is set to 86%.

Worth pointing out, my new MBA in 2015 got the use of no such app and I used the machine a lot and never had any battery issues for many years. Gut feel based on years of modern Apple laptop use is these apps are not doing as much for battery health as you think they are.
 
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Do we get a charge to 100% now button or still have to mess around with changing it, click for just one day, endlessly like on iphone.

The whole automatic thing just got in the way for those that have no pattern. Just need a few simple controls - the charge limit and on/off. Only I know what I need and when.
 
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bbzzz said:
Do we get a charge to 100% now button or still have to mess around with changing it, click for just one day, endlessly like on iphone.

The whole automatic thing just got in the way for those that have no pattern. Just need a few simple compels, charge limit and on/off. Only I know what I need and when.
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You will likely have access to an Apple shortcut to achieve this action, either way.
 
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Siliconguy said:
Yeah, sure it does. 🙄

I have it turned on, but yet it always charges to 100%.

Maybe the new version will work better, as in at all. That said I'm still at 89% battery capacity after five years so I can't complain very much.
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Apple’s laptop batteries in my experience are very high quality. Going directly to Apple for battery service is my go-to recommendation for anyone seeking a new Apple battery. No-brainier. I got many years without using AlDente. The app has software updates so often I’m half thinking of canning it. It’s annoying.
 
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I used AlDente paid version for a few years then realised other than charge limiting to 80%, I never used any of its functionality so switched to free version.

With this update, I am going to delete it as I don’t like to have to many background apps (I’m stuck in early 2000s I guess).

Is there any real benefit I’m missing?
 
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Mac Fly (film) said:
I honestly don’t know to what degree it helps. I never used it when I got my MBA brand new in 2015 and the device went years without any battery issues. Have been using AlDente for a good while now. What annoys me about the app is they must be pushing a new update for the app once a month. Who knows what the hell they’re up to tbh. This many updates this often for an app like this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In that sense I’m kind of glad it’ll be getting sherlocked.
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Same reason why it was added to iPhone and iPads. To give users the option to limit battery charge and prolong battery health.

This feature is a godsend on both iPads and Macs now that users can have their Macs plugged in 24/4 at 80% and not have a care in the world.
 
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