Battery health degraded to 96% in 2 months on MacBook Pro

Nirav_ wrote:

My MacBook Pro m3 14-inch has a battery health degraded to 96 percent in just 2 months of purchase, I bought it in September 2025 and now I'm concerned as I'm still in warranty, what should I do?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: MacBook

?

"what should I do"...?

Use your mac as you see fit. I see no issue.

Your battery will more than likely outlive the working life of your mac.

You do not have to micro-manage battery charging, let the built in software work for you. Use your mac as you see fit.

The rule of thumb—if you are near the mains leave it plugged in, if you need the portability then run on the battery only—this is how you help optimize your battery charging and extend the working life of your battery by reducing the cycle count. You have an expect 1000 cycle count

Determine battery cycle count for Mac notebooks

Determine battery cycle count for Mac laptops - Apple Support

About BHM battery health management:

M1/M2/M3/M4 SoC

About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support

if you see you battery needs service then at that time take it in—

Get help with your Mac notebook battery

Learn how to optimize the life of the battery in your Mac notebook, fix battery issues, and get service.

If you see Service Recommended on your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro - Apple Support

leroydouglas wrote:

Apple only recognizes an issue if your Battery health is ≤ 80%

at that time you can take it in for service.

FYI, I think this may have changed last year. I think this may have been lowered to <75% (or a bit less even), but haven't been able to confirm the exact point (it doesn't help that the level shown on them menubar is not the same as being reported by the battery (using low level Apple utilities.....the actual accurate values...best we have anyway).

Last year with/near the release of Sequoia, Apple made a change to macOS and the Apple Diagnostics where I had batteries below these thresholds still pass. It is hard to get/find a battery below the threshold where the diagnostics can be run since rebooting and/or connecting the power adapter can cause the battery's "health" to jump a bit higher into the "safe" range and macOS must not poll the battery's health as often since I could not get it to say "Service Recommended" for the Battery condition.

As always you've provide excellent advice here.

Nirav_ wrote:

Thank you for the help....

My major concern was that my cycle count is 25 only

" battery health degraded to 96 percent in just 2 months of purchase,

I would not worry about it.

No one said it is linear progression downward.

I have seen battery health increase over time. Follow the rule of thumb for best results.

ex. Battery Health Management—

notice ~1 yr the % Battery health has increased over time see col.2, battery cycles col.5

Apple only recognizes an issue if your Battery health is ≤ 80%

at that time you can take it in for service.