Battery cycle count is not the number that matters.

1000 cycles is Apple’s rated limit for modern MacBook Airs (2020 M1 and later). That means your battery is designed to keep at least 80% of its original capacity after 1000 full charge/discharge cycles. It is not a hard expiration date.

You should pay attention to battery health percentage instead. That’s the real story. A battery with 300 cycles and 92% health is fine. A battery with 200 cycles and 78% health is failing. Cycle count is just a rough proxy, not a diagnosis.

Check health by holding Option and clicking the battery icon in the menu bar, or using System Settings → Battery. If health drops below 80%, you’ll start noticing worse runtime. That is when you should consider a replacement — not at some magic cycle number.

Your Mac will keep working fine past 1000 cycles. The battery just won’t hold as much juice. Treat it like a gas tank that gets smaller, not a countdown to disaster.