Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

[iDento]

How fast you charge your battery kills your battery life faster that 80% or 100% charging limit.

 

[kcwookie]

94% after one year and I have to charge one than once a day.

 

[CaptTee]

With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.

It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.

For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.

You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.

It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.

I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.

Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.

Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

My 12 Mini says Maximum Capacity 78%, but does not report cycles. It suggests I make an appointment at a Genius Bar to spend $89 for a new battery.

So what if the battery needs charging often. I am never far away from the charger on my desk or by my recliner or in my car. It replaced a 6+, so i see no reason why the iPhone should be replace before the 18 comes out.

 

[Jaisah]

15 Pro Max with 93% battery health after 271 cycles and I have mainly used the 80% charge limit. I did turn off the charge limit when I travelled to Italy but that was only 3 weeks out of ~52. I'm pretty disappointed. These batteries in the 15 series are supposed to be 1000 cycle batteries i.e. it should take 1000 cycles to drop to 80% capacity. At this rate -7%/271=-0.0258% per charge so it will only go -20%/-0.0258=775 charges before dropping to 80% capacity (assuming linear degradation). That is terrible, especially considering that I have been babying my battery! Not only have I used the 80% charge limit but I also ALWAYS plug my phone in as soon as it drops to 20-30%. I think it has only gone below 20% charge a handful of times at most. I don't leave my phone sitting in the sun or in hot places so I don't think heat is the issue. I do mostly charge wirelessly but I have a Belkin Magsafe charger which doesn't heat up my phone and my wireless charger at work is only 7.5W so that doesn't really heat up the phone either.

I was so pleased when I found out that Apple had FINALLY put 1000 cycle batteries in their phones but now one year later it seems that they have swindled us and put inferior quality batteries in these flagship devices. SMH.

 

[N47H]

I’m a bit confused by what this feature actually offers you. So you only get to charge your phone to 80% in order to slow down battery degradation? I mean on the face of it, it sounds great, but just think about that a little more. The whole point of avoiding battery degradation is so that your battery holds more charge throughout its life and therefore you get more battery life/usage from your phone with each charge. But if you’re going to limit your capacity optionally to 80% then you’re never going to see the benefit of that reduced degradation.

80% of 100% is 80% (obviously) and the article says after a year of using that 80% restriction the battery capacity dropped to 94%, which now means that your 80% is actually 75.2%. I have yet to see an iPhone reduced down to 75% battery health. After 3 years of usage I retired my 13 Pro Max to replace it with a 16 Pro Max, that 13 Pro Max after 3 years of heavy usage, charging at least once a day if not more, leaving it plugged in overnight, not worrying about the battery at all, doing nothing to preserve its health only dropped down to 87% capacity. So after three years I still wouldn’t have benefited from the feature even if the feature prevented degradation entirely. You’re gonna have to be using a phone for about 10 years to see the eventual benefits of this, but by then you’d have replaced the phone or battery anyway.

Absolutely pointless, literally nothing to gain from this, and anyone who’s committed to using it won’t be willing to stop doing so the next year once they’ve reduced their degradation for a year vs a standard user not using the feature anyway, it’s literally chasing a carrot in a stick.

 

[Mr. Tim]

iPhone 15 Pro Max
Oct. 2023 to Sept 26, 2024
Battery Optimization enabled. (Not charge to 80%)
Maximum Capacity - 100%
Cycle Count - 131
Manufacture Date - Sept. 2023
First Use. - October 2023

 

[z4co]

Just noticed something by glossing over this thread...
Could you check this thesis? @z4co
Every battery manufactured in or after September 23 with over 200 Cycles are faring a lot better than most of their older variants.

Hmm that is an interesting observation. Batteries do degrade over time even when not in use, though this would only be two more months of calendar life at the most (July 2023 seems to be the earliest production date for 15s). I think you would need a lot more data to support that claim than is available in this thread. And, you would really need to compare them at the same cycle.

 

[boxrick]

​

Here was my 1 year old day 1 iphone 15 pro. 98% was USB C charging. Always to 100% with no battery charging optimisation on.

 

[2old4this]

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Help me out here. Apple’s battery health is suppose to be a measure of available changeability compared to a new battery. Wouldn’t that logically mean that when battery health shows 80%, your battery now has 80% of the capacity of a new battery? Logically, then, artificially setting the charge of a new battery at 80% would be the same as using an old battery that is just about ready for replacement, without ever using the advantage of a full, 100% charge. So setting the charge level to 80% is akin to using your phone with a 3-year-old battery before the phone is 3 years old.

 

[joekun]

I’ve got a day one 15 pro max 80% limit and it’s now 98% capacity, 192 cycles. Manufactured 08/2023.

It’s funny seeing all the posts here talking about how they don’t see the point. The battery life has been so good on this phone I have rarely ever drained down to 20% from 80% in a day. I don’t feel limited at all. I plan to keep this phone 4 years minimum. At some point I’ll turn the charge limit off, but for now I have no reason to.

I do wish they would add a button to charge to 100% on the charging screen for when you know you need it for just 1 day.

 

[007Spydie]

With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.

It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.

For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.

You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.

It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.

I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.

Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.

Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

I also left mine at the 80 percent and a year later I'm still at 100% battery life with 140 cycles. I'd say that's a win!

 

[artifex]

Will then move the XR to secondary use (motorcycle MP3 player) for another 6.5yrs, retiring my previous iPhone5 at 13yo. FWIW, HERE’s a recalibration/rundown test at 9.5yo, and it’s performing just fine, now at 11.5yo. (Note: my phones generally only see 100% for rundown tests and recalibrations.)

I admire that you have alternate uses for your older devices and keep them in service that long.

 

[wolfie37]

With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.

It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.

For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.

You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.

It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.

I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.

Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.

Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

15 Pro. First use October 2023. No limit on battery. Mostly charged at overnight via MagSafe. 382 Cycles, 90%.

 

[kevmark58]

My 15 pro is one year old and I charge to 100% daily, almost always with MagSafe. I'm currently at 94% capacity at 303 cycles. I plan on replacing it with the 17 pro in September 2025.

 

[lightrack]

I have 2 iPhones Xs, both were bought in December 2018, these are the phones my spouse and I use every day a lot. The fist has 78%, the second - 79%. In Q4 2023 - Q1 2024 both had 80%. Optimized battery charging function was enabled on both as soon as we got it in iOS. However, the secret I believe is the fact we use 5V slow chargers which we got with 4s and 6 models. The faster you charge the faster a battery dies. Therefore, iPhones Xs lasted 5+ years with 80+% batteries, unbelievable. Previous iPhones 6 lasted ~4 years before battery dropped below 80%.

 

[vahighland]

100% with cycle count 118 for my 15 Pro Max. I keep it at 80% setting except for occasional travel.

 

[reppans]

The whole point of avoiding battery degradation is so that your battery holds more charge throughout its life and therefore you get more battery life/usage from your phone with each charge. But if you’re going to limit your capacity optionally to 80% then you’re never going to see the benefit of that reduced degradation.

So after three years I still wouldn’t have benefited from the feature even if the feature prevented degradation entirely. You’re gonna have to be using a phone for about 10 years to see the eventual benefits of this, but by then you’d have replaced the phone or battery anyway.

…. So setting the charge level to 80% is akin to using your phone with a 3-year-old battery before the phone is 3 years old.

Think of it like RPMs on a daily driver - many folks have enough of power so rarely need to redline the motor. If you don’t need full power, then may as well take it easy at lower RPMs for fuel efficiency/longevity. If you do need max power (eg track junky or racing) then just pay for the more frequent motor rebuilds/replacements and fuel. If you lease cars, then maybe who cares - it becomes someone else’s problem after 3yo. However, if you want to keep the car long-term, or sell privately, or gift to family member, or repair/replacement facilities are expensive/distant/inconvenient, then perhaps taking better care of the car counts. Seems pretty easy/logical to me.

I personally wouldn’t bother with batt management if it meant regularly plugging-in more than once/day - rather do a $100 Apple batt swap. My 5yo iPhone still covers my average ~7hrs SoT/day on 60% batt (batt graphs posted above), so cycling 80-15 on an automated custom charge optimization is no hassle for me. Actually I started cycling ~65-15 for the first 3yrs, and expect to be ~90-15 at ~6.5yo (as I slowly lose health/capacity with age) when iOS support drops and I plan to upgrade. FWIW, I even like having this SoT capacity limit since I sort of NEED a ‘parental control feature’ to cap my daily usage below 9hrs SoT/day.

 

[Breanna417]

Used it on my iPhone 15 Plus and I was at 98% when I traded it in for the iPhone 16 Pro but I have decided to stop doing that like honestly what is the point to use your iPhone only up to 80% all the time. That's basically like using a brand new phone with a degraded battery from the start

Haha I never thought about it this way lol. Youre right. Its literally using your phone as if its already degraded down to 80% 😂😂

Trying to save your battery health by using it as if it’s already degraded. lol senseless

 

[topcat001]

How fast you charge your battery kills your battery life faster that 80% or 100% charging limit.

Good point. I avoid fast charging modes/devices as much as possible.

 

[Boggs]

With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.

It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.

For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.

You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.

It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.

I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.

Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.

Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

It does not seem worth it, my iPhone 15 ProMax was at 95% after 329 cycles when I traded it in. I did not limit my. charge to 80% but always charged to full during the evening hours while watching tv and rarely left it charging overnight.

 

[NewOldStock]

They should sell one with 20% less battery capacity and sell it with a big discount since 20% extra is not needed anyway.

 

[censcat]

15 Pro Max using 100%, maximum capacity is 99%, cycle count is 162. I got it in Oct 2023. I charge it on a mag safe every night and use a plugin in the car for car play.

 

[standieg0]

Still 100% on my 15 Pro Max with 195 cycle count, charged 90% on my Belkin MagSafe charger, 10% on a Qi car charging pad, never charged via a cable.

 

[Dave00]

With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.

It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.

For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.

You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.

It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.

I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.

Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.

Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

Suggestion:
Put all the data points of people posting their charging numbers into a spreadsheet, and generate a real analysis.

I'll add mine. I'm probably the worst case in terms of not using "correctly". I always charge to 100%, and it's topped off most of the time, I try not to let it go too low because I'm always worrried about running out of power. 188 cycles, 100% capacity. iPhone 15 Pro Max, charged almost exclusively via old-school usb-C.

 

[ikjadoon]

Limiting it to 80% effectively limits your capacity to 80%. You are living with a poor battery in order to avoid living with a poor battery. It makes no sense.

I left mine uncapped and it’s 93% after 290 cycles

This. No idea why someone voted thumbs down lol

It's been addressed in previous comments.

TL;DR: Apple, Google, Android OEMs, every EV manufacturer on Earth, etc. don't do battery management based on "nonsense". It is a scientific reality that limiting peak charge → better for batteries. Why people do it: so they can charge to 95%+ when they want, vs poor battery health people stuck at 90% (and then 85% and 80%) forever.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-80-charging-limit-for-iphone-how-much-did-it-help-after-a-year.2438027/post-33442486