How to Show Battery Percentage in macOS Monterey and Big Sur

Apple hid the battery percentage option starting with Big Sur. Here's where it is.
Zach Zach (248)
5 minutes

I always keep an eye on my MacBook's battery percentage—especially since, as a developer, I run a lot of resource-intensive applications. I always want the battery percentage to show up in the macOS menu bar. There's nothing worse than your computer dying mid-task, forcing you to wrangle up your AC adapter and figure out where you left off.

With the release of Big Sur, macOS now hides battery percentage from the menu bar by default, even if you had it enabled previously. They also removed the right-click option from the menu bar that formerly showed it.

In this short guide, I'll show you how to show your Mac's battery percentage in the menu bar in macOS Monterey and macOS Big Sur and get your Mac's battery percentage back.

MacBook ×1

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System Preferences in macOS Monterey and Big Sur

In the menu bar, navigate to  > System Preferences.

You can also open it through Spotlight by pressing [⌘CMD]-[SPACEBAR], typing "System Preferences", and pressing enter.

macOS Monterey and Big Sur Dock and Menu Bar item

Click on the Dock & Menu Bar item.

macOS Big Sur Battery Menu Bar settings

In the sidebar, click on Battery.

Then, check the Show Percentage checkbox.

Close system preferences. You're all done!

Learn how to hide and show your Mac's Menu Bar.
1 minute

By default, your Mac's Menu Bar is generally a consistent presence on your Mac.