How to show battery percentage in the menu bar on Mac

Updated 2026 · 3 min read

The battery icon in the macOS menu bar shows a rough fill level — useful at a glance, less useful when you're at 23% and wondering how long you have left. Turning on the numeric percentage takes one setting in Control Center. Here's where to find it, how to do it from Terminal, and what to do if the command doesn't stick.

Where to find it in System Settings

Open System Settings (Apple menu → System Settings).
Click Control Center in the sidebar.
Scroll to the Battery section.
Turn on Show Percentage.

The percentage appears in the menu bar immediately next to the battery icon. No restart needed.

The Terminal command

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and run:

# show battery percentage in the menu bar
defaults write com.apple.controlcenter BatteryShowPercentage -bool true
killall ControlCenter

The killall ControlCenter restarts the Control Center process so the change takes effect without a logout. To hide the percentage again:

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

Why the Terminal command sometimes doesn't stick

On macOS 13 Ventura and later, Apple moved battery display settings into Control Center's own preferences domain. Earlier guides target com.apple.controlcenter with a key called NSStatusItem Visible Battery — that domain controls whether the battery icon appears at all, not the percentage. The key above (BatteryShowPercentage) is the right one for macOS 13+. If you've tried a command before and it didn't work, it was likely targeting the wrong key.

On very rare occasions the ControlCenter process doesn't pick up the new value immediately. If that happens, a log out and back in will always resolve it.

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Does this work on all Macs?

Yes — any Mac with a built-in battery running macOS 13 or later. On Intel Macs running macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, the path is slightly different: System Preferences → Dock & Menu Bar → Battery → check "Show Percentage". The setting has existed for years; it's just moved around with each redesign of System Settings.

What if I don't see a battery icon at all?

If the battery icon isn't showing up, check System Settings → Control Center → Battery → Show in Menu Bar and make sure it's set to "Always" or "When Active". The percentage toggle only matters once the icon itself is visible.