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My MBA mid-2013 usually lasts for about 6 hours; it's been used for almost 4 years now. I use Chrome for internet browsing, mostly Facebook, Reddit and go over to other websites from these two websites. No other streaming or song playing or any other app runs that continuously syncs over the Internet.

I do use a number of extensions on Chrome - adblocker, lastpass, Evernote, hover zoom+.

My questions is, is 5-6 hours a normal battery life for 4-year old mid-2013 MBA with these settings or is is it time for me change the battery?

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    Rather than looking at time, you can more directly check the battery health with an application like coconut Battery.
    – Scot
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 21:34

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A 17% drop in capacity over 4 years is not an issue. Batteries have a useful life of 3 to 5 years depending on cycle count; if you get 1000 cycles, you've gotten the full life out of it.

The key here is the number of cycles. It's important to note that it's not what you do, but how many times you charge the battery. It doesn't care that you're reading reddit, browsing with Chrome, or rendering video. What matters is how often your battery is drained and recharged.

Note: A cycle is one complete drain and recharge. If you drain only 5% and then recharge, it's only a 5% of one cycle; you have to do that 20 more times to to equal one whole charge cycle.

See:

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  • That looks not quit correct to me. Never discharging the battery will show a very small cycle count but the battery is usually toast much sooner than 3 years if handled this way.
    – LаngLаngС
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 21:59
  • @LangLangC - the OP has a battery that he claims is 4 years old and has lost approximately 17% of capacity. That throws the "3 year toast" claim in doubt from the outset. Also see: apple.stackexchange.com/a/238125/119271
    – Allan
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 22:04
  • The OP didn't specify unplugged patterns. But Apple said this when this MBA was current: "Can I keep my MacBook pro plugged in all times while working on it?" Apple recommended answer: "The battery will last best if you use it, at least a bit, regularly (every couple or few days say, but at the very least once a week)." Apple's website had this to say: "For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally." Experience told me that even at the Genius bar these guidelines were given out
    – LаngLаngС
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 4:12

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