How long will my Macbook SSD last with intense use?

I have the base Macbook air 2023 m2 model (15") with 250gb storage and 8gb ram. Since there is so little ram in this mac, doing any small task instantly takes up all the ram so it has to begin to swap files which uses disk space. I am aware SSDs, like all forms of storage, have a limited amount of TBW before they officially become unstable.


I am averaging about 1.5TB read and 1TB write per day, which is quite a lot. The swap files amount is typically over 10GB and memory pressure is always in the yellow and occasional red. There are also major hits to performance and thermals as well, but that doesn't bother me too much (except when the audio crackles or repeats from freezes). The majority of read and write data comes from the swaped files and not from me copying files or downloading stuff, since I mainly use it for web browsing but I end up with lots of tabs. (school is getting tougher). I have also stopped updating my mac since the newer updates require more ram, which will undoubtedly worsen the problem.


My question is if my macbook is averaging 1.5TB read and 1TB write per day, roughly how long will it last before it becomes unstable or shows significant signs of wear and tear?

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Nov 6, 2025 4:20 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 6, 2025 9:30 AM

FYI, most SSD failures are not caused by excessive writes to the SSD, but from the SSD's controller failing. Those types of failures are usually without warning (or very little warning) & will be quite sudden & permanent. Many SSDs, especially the better quality ones like Apple uses, typically can write PBs of data before dying. I've only personally seen the latter occur a few times where the SSD was being used under extreme conditions/load and in a 24/7 endurance stress test which lasted several years (the website pulled the report & I don't feel like searching the Internet Archive for it at the moment).


Your two main issues here are that you don't have enough memory on your laptop for the way you are using your laptop since 10GB of Swap is way too large....I'm sure the "Compressed" memory is also in the GB range.


The most concerning item is you are reporting just 24.28GB of "Available" storage space. The "Available" storage value is very misleading & unreliable. You need to check your Free storage space which unfortunately is only shown in Disk Utility or the System Profiler. On macOS "Available" is not synonymous with Free. The Free storage value is the most important storage value to monitor.


If you completely run out of Free storage space, then bad things will happen....such as the system crashing & having no way to delete items to make more room on the SSD due to how the APFS file system works. You need an absolute minimum of 20GB+ of Free storage space at all times for the normal operation of just macOS (best to keep at least 20%+ instead of GB). You will likely need even more Free storage space depending on the needs of the running apps since that 20GB can disappear very quickly with no open apps.


Since your Mac is undersized for your workloads, you are adding much extra wear to the entire computer. The lack of sufficient memory is causing the system to use Swap which adds a lot of extra writes to your SSD. The lack of sufficient Free storage space exasperates the problem because the SSD has to work harder to keep the wear leveling on the SSD's NAND memory cells balanced (meaning lots more writes the SSD already being slammed by the Swap usage). All of this also causes those NAND memory chips to get really hot which can weaken them as well. All of this can cause the system performance to degrade because the system must do so much extra work in the background. The amount of wear to the SSD also depends on the number of NAND chips used by the system. Many times for the smaller SSD sizes only a single NAND chip is used....these days a single 256GB NAND is very likely, but I have no idea if this is the case for your Mac. If it contains a single NAND chip, then the SSD will need to work even harder to balance things. Apple doesn't provide details on such details regarding their SSDs, but I know a couple years ago at least one Apple laptop contained just a single 256GB NAND chip.


You should start closing apps to lessen the memory pressure & relocate your largest items to an external SSD to make more Free storage space on the internal SSD. Or you can purchase another Mac with more memory & internal storage.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 6, 2025 9:30 AM in response to Modnet

FYI, most SSD failures are not caused by excessive writes to the SSD, but from the SSD's controller failing. Those types of failures are usually without warning (or very little warning) & will be quite sudden & permanent. Many SSDs, especially the better quality ones like Apple uses, typically can write PBs of data before dying. I've only personally seen the latter occur a few times where the SSD was being used under extreme conditions/load and in a 24/7 endurance stress test which lasted several years (the website pulled the report & I don't feel like searching the Internet Archive for it at the moment).


Your two main issues here are that you don't have enough memory on your laptop for the way you are using your laptop since 10GB of Swap is way too large....I'm sure the "Compressed" memory is also in the GB range.


The most concerning item is you are reporting just 24.28GB of "Available" storage space. The "Available" storage value is very misleading & unreliable. You need to check your Free storage space which unfortunately is only shown in Disk Utility or the System Profiler. On macOS "Available" is not synonymous with Free. The Free storage value is the most important storage value to monitor.


If you completely run out of Free storage space, then bad things will happen....such as the system crashing & having no way to delete items to make more room on the SSD due to how the APFS file system works. You need an absolute minimum of 20GB+ of Free storage space at all times for the normal operation of just macOS (best to keep at least 20%+ instead of GB). You will likely need even more Free storage space depending on the needs of the running apps since that 20GB can disappear very quickly with no open apps.


Since your Mac is undersized for your workloads, you are adding much extra wear to the entire computer. The lack of sufficient memory is causing the system to use Swap which adds a lot of extra writes to your SSD. The lack of sufficient Free storage space exasperates the problem because the SSD has to work harder to keep the wear leveling on the SSD's NAND memory cells balanced (meaning lots more writes the SSD already being slammed by the Swap usage). All of this also causes those NAND memory chips to get really hot which can weaken them as well. All of this can cause the system performance to degrade because the system must do so much extra work in the background. The amount of wear to the SSD also depends on the number of NAND chips used by the system. Many times for the smaller SSD sizes only a single NAND chip is used....these days a single 256GB NAND is very likely, but I have no idea if this is the case for your Mac. If it contains a single NAND chip, then the SSD will need to work even harder to balance things. Apple doesn't provide details on such details regarding their SSDs, but I know a couple years ago at least one Apple laptop contained just a single 256GB NAND chip.


You should start closing apps to lessen the memory pressure & relocate your largest items to an external SSD to make more Free storage space on the internal SSD. Or you can purchase another Mac with more memory & internal storage.


Nov 6, 2025 6:39 AM in response to Modnet

Apple does not publish MTBF data but it is nearly certain the Mac will become functionally obsolete well before its flash memory fails. Reports of failure are extremely rare — practically unheard of, and statistically insignificant.


"Base" model Macs (i.e. yours) become functionally obsolete well before Macs more reasonably configured for longevity. 250 GB / 8 GB is an exiguous amount. You can see for yourself only 10% of its storage capacity remains available.


As for memory, "the swap files amount is typically over 10GB and memory pressure is always in the yellow and occasional red" means its performance has become constrained by a paucity of RAM. Refer to Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor. Additional memory cannot be added after it's built.


Some of my Macs are 15+ years old and they still work as well as they did when they were new. At the time, they were specified at or near their "high end" configurations. That does not imply they are not functionally obsolete though, in that they cannot run the latest browser versions, can't use certain Apple services, etc. In the future, if you want a Mac to last for a decade or more, do that. It's by far the cheapest way to own a Mac.

How long will my Macbook SSD last with intense use?

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