On modern versions of macOS, the quickest way to check the battery level of supported Bluetooth devices (whether you’re integrating Bluetooth into your smart home or investing in some of the weirder new Bluetooth gadgets) is to use the Bluetooth controls in the system settings, menu bar, or Control Center.
To get started, open System Settings and go to Bluetooth. Here you can view all your Bluetooth accessories as well as a small icon or battery percentage next to each connected device, giving you an overview of how much charge remains. If you want a persistent, one-click way to check, add Bluetooth to the menu bar: On macOS Ventura or later, along with a number of cool new macOS features, go to System Settings > Control Center and set Bluetooth to “Show in Menu Bar,” then click that icon at any time to see connected devices and their battery percentage. On older versions of macOS, you enable the same icon by opening System Preferences > Bluetooth and checking “Show Bluetooth in menu bar,” then hovering over or expanding each device to see its remaining battery.
If you spend most of your time in the settings panes anyway, Apple also displays battery information by device in the relevant sections: you’ll find your keyboard’s battery level at the bottom of the Keyboard Settings window, your mouse in Mouse, and your trackpad in Trackpad. For users who prefer a dashboard-style overview, adding the Batteries widget to the Notification Center or desktop lets you monitor the charging status of your Mac and supported devices in one place without having to dig through menus.
Go beyond the basics when it comes to health and unsupported devices
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Apple doesn’t expose detailed cycle counts or degradation metrics for Bluetooth accessories on macOS, so “battery health” is really inferred from how quickly a device drains and how accurately macOS reports its percentage over weeks or months. If you notice that your Magic Mouse goes from 100% to 20% in a fraction of the usual time, or that the indicated percentage increases instead of gradually decreasing, this is a strong signal that the battery cell is wearing out. Checking these indicators regularly helps you quickly detect failing batteries and avoid dead devices in the middle of a Zoom call or gaming session.
For third-party accessories that don’t display battery percentage in Apple menus, you’re not completely out of luck. Some vendors offer their own macOS-related utilities to expose battery data, such as Logitech’s software for specific mice and keyboards. There are also small menu bar apps like Magic Battery and similar tools that can display charge levels for a wider range of devices, including Apple input hardware, AirPods, Beats headphones and even iPhones and iPads, with compact or detailed views and low battery notifications that appear when an accessory reaches around 20%. Power users can dig deeper through Terminal by using ioreg-based commands to read the battery percentage values of certain Apple Bluetooth devices directly from the system’s hardware registry, which is useful if you want to script alerts or record discharge patterns over time.
