Show battery percentage in the menu bar (any macOS)

The battery percentage has lived in three different places over the years, so the instructions you find often point at a menu that no longer exists. Here's the current route plus the older ones, so you can add the number to your menu bar whichever macOS you're on. If you're on Ventura or later, the short answer is System Settings → Control Center → Battery → Show Percentage.

Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia (macOS 13, 14, 15)

On every current version the toggle sits in Control Center settings, and it behaves identically across all three:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Click Control Center in the sidebar.
3. Scroll to the Battery section.
4. Turn on Show Percentage.

The number appears inside the battery icon in the menu bar, immediately and without a restart. Turning it off again is the same switch in reverse. Because the location is shared across Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia, upgrading between these versions won't move the setting on you.

The Terminal command (Ventura and later)

On macOS 13 and up the same preference has a defaults key, useful if you're configuring several Macs or scripting a setup. It writes exactly what the toggle does:

# Show the percentage, then relaunch Control Center
defaults write com.apple.controlcenter BatteryShowPercentage -bool true
killall ControlCenter

# Undo — hide the percentage
defaults write com.apple.controlcenter BatteryShowPercentage -bool false
killall ControlCenter

Older macOS versions

If you're running something earlier than Ventura, the setting lives elsewhere and this command won't apply — use the graphical route for your version instead:

• Monterey and Big Sur (macOS 12 and 11): open System Preferences → Dock & Menu Bar, select Battery in the sidebar, and tick Show Percentage. On early Monterey this option briefly went missing before Apple restored it in an update, so make sure you're fully updated if you don't see it.
• Catalina and earlier: click the battery icon in the menu bar and choose Show Percentage straight from the dropdown. If there's no battery icon at all, enable it under System Preferences → Energy Saver first.

Whichever route applies, the end result is the same: a live percentage next to the battery icon. Only the path to the switch changes with the macOS version.

One number, two forms

A quick note on how the reading looks. On Ventura and later, the percentage is printed inside the battery glyph to save space. On older versions it typically appeared as a separate number beside the icon. Same information either way — don't be thrown if it looks different after an upgrade. And on any version, you can always see the current figure by opening Control Center (or, on older systems, clicking the battery icon) without committing to showing it full-time.

Fill out the rest of your menu bar

Now that the percentage is showing, the menu bar is worth a wider tidy-up. Our guide to rearranging menu bar icons on Mac shows how to drag the battery, clock, and other indicators into the order you actually want.