Am I hurting my MacBook battery if it's always plugged in?

[MacCheetah3]

Hey, all! Just bumping this one.
Noticed strange behavior, up until maybe 3 days My M1 Pro, kept battery charge at about 92-88%.
I had one single day, then had to run him on battery, it did very well, by the way, active use dusk till dawn, had 23% left at the end.

Now, it seems to always charge it to full. I am very picky about small details, is it worth Mac OS reinstall? I don't see the charging on hold for the last 3 days. Granted, maybe the 1 day on the battery was something that threw Big Suroff, since we were in lockdown for the last 14 months, and I barely left the house?

As mentioned earlier:

Apple’s optimized charging algorithms attempt to do this for many of their devices by learning when you take them off chargers, and waiting to top off until a little bit before that time. This works best if you actually have a pattern to behavior; I personally do not.

Theoretically, Apple is adapting the charge level even when your device is plugged in. Just how much it does this, and how much it limits excessive wear on the battery is difficult to quantify without doing an A/B test. I‘m not aware of anyone having done this. I can only surmise that Apple has done their homework, and that there is a significant advantage to the optimized charging feature, or else it wouldn’t have been added.

About battery health management in Mac laptops - Apple Support

Mac laptop computers with an Intel processor use battery health management, a feature designed to improve the lifespan of your computer's battery.

support.apple.com

Trying to keep things simple…

1. Charging and discharging batteries causes wear — generally measured by full charge cycles.
2. Because of how Li batteries work, it’s best to have a charge level of ~50% when the battery is left unused (not charging or discharging) for a significant period of time. There are members here that know of and use third-party tools to control battery charging beyond Apple’s automated functions — I don’t recall the app names offhand.
3. Basic aging decreases battery life

How much each of these factors effects a battery differs.

You can just let things be. Otherwise, get the type of tool mentioned in #2 or do what @Fishrrman suggested.

Every 3rd day, take it "off charge" and let the battery drop down to about 40-45%. Then plug it back in.

Every NIGHT (doesn't matter whether you power down or just let it sleep), UNPLUG the CHARGER from the wall outlet.
In the morning, plug it back in.

You wouldn’t need to do it every 3 days — you can though. Once per week or so should be fine.

 

[TrancyGoose]

As mentioned earlier:

About battery health management in Mac laptops - Apple Support

Mac laptop computers with an Intel processor use battery health management, a feature designed to improve the lifespan of your computer's battery.

support.apple.com

Trying to keep things simple…

1. Charging and discharging batteries causes wear — generally measured by full charge cycles.
2. Because of how Li batteries work, it’s best to have a charge level of ~50% when the battery is left unused (not charging or discharging) for a significant period of time. There are members here that know of and use third-party tools to control battery charging beyond Apple’s automated functions — I don’t recall the app names offhand.
3. Basic aging decreases battery life

How much each of these factors effects a battery differs.

You can just let things be. Otherwise, get the type of tool mentioned in #2 or do what @Fishrrman suggested.

You wouldn’t need to do it every 3 days — you can though. Once per week or so should be fine.

Thank you for responding. I am currentry trying out the Aldente Pro, it seems to do a decent job, as the Mac Optimisation has been clunky, kept always charging it to full for some reason, no idea why. I will see how it will work, but so far so good.