BattBar
Time left at what you're doing now.
Battery percent, the watts your Mac is drawing right now, and how long that lasts, in the menu bar: 95% 7.6W 7:07. macOS's own estimate is a long average that lags behind; this one moves when you open a video call or start a build.
Cheap to run
Reads the battery straight from the system once a minute, on a loose timer macOS can batch with other wake-ups. Measured on an M1 Max: 0.0% CPU, no idle wake-ups, 11 MB of memory.
Fresh on click
Open the menu and it reads again on the spot; ⌘R refreshes too. On power it shows AC, or the watts going into the battery while charging.
Honest numbers
Percent of what your battery holds today, not what it held new, and time left at the current draw. No admin access and no powermetrics; its only network use is a daily update check.
Install in a minute
- Download BattBar, open the disk image and drag BattBar into Applications. It's signed and notarized by Apple.
- Open it. The reading appears in the menu bar; click it any time for a fresh one.
- To start it at login, add it under System Settings → General → Login Items.
- BattBar updates itself. You can also choose Check for Updates… from its menu.