It's two taps away, and it's worth real money. Open Settings › Battery › Battery Health & Charging and read the Maximum Capacity percentage. At JustSell, book prices assume a 100% battery — and every band below it steps your quote down by $100, to a floor at your model's minimum book price.
On a mid-spec iPhone 17 Pro Max (512GB) in Like New condition, that's $1,210 at 100%, $1,110 at 91–99%, and $910 at 71–80%. Same phone, same condition — one settings screen quietly decides $300. Check yours before you quote, not after.
Picture it: your old iPhone is on the kitchen counter, you're halfway through listing it, and a buyer asks the question you suddenly can't answer — "what's the battery health?" You guess. They lowball. Here's how to never guess again.
Every iPhone carries its own report card, and every serious buyer reads it. This is the 30-second check, what each percentage band actually does to your payout, and the one upgrade that almost never pays for itself.
The 30-second check (do it before you do anything else)
On older iOS versions the screen is simply called Battery Health. It's the same page either way.
That's your battery health — the charge your battery holds today compared with when it was new. 100% is a fresh battery; 87% means it holds 87% of its original charge.
iPhone 15 and later also list a cycle count and the battery's manufacture and first-use dates on the same screen. One cycle is a full 100% of charge used — not one plug-in.
For context, Apple designs iPhone 15 and later batteries to retain 80% capacity at 1,000 complete charge cycles, and iPhone 14 and earlier batteries to reach 80% at 500 cycles, under ideal conditions. So an 84% reading on a three-year-old phone isn't a defect — it's chemistry, right on schedule. What matters for your sale is simply which band your number lands in.
The detail everyone misses
The quote flow asks for your battery band after condition — and your answer there is worth as much as the condition step itself. Guessing a band too high doesn't help: the phone reports its real number at the check, and an honest difference means a revised offer. Read the screen, pick the true band, and the price you lock is the price you're paid.
What each band does to your actual payout
Here's the full ladder, worked on the phone most sellers ask about: an iPhone 17 Pro Max, 512GB, Like New — the mid-spec configuration, quoted at $1,210 with a 100% battery. Each step down is the same phone, one battery band lower.
| Battery health | This phone pays | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| 100% | $1,210 | Full book price. Sell whenever you're ready. |
| 91–99% | $1,110 | Still a strong battery. No reason to wait — it only drifts down. |
| 81–90% | $1,010 | The most common band for a 2–3-year-old phone. Price it honestly and it sells clean. |
| 71–80% | $910 | Approaching Apple's own 80% service line. Every month here risks the next band. |
| 61–70% | $810 | The discount is now bigger than most repairs are worth debating. Sell as-is. |
| 51–60% | $710 | You've reached this model's floor — the quote stops dropping here. |
| 50% or below | $710 | Same floor. A tired battery caps your loss; it doesn't erase your phone's value. |
Two things worth noticing. First, the steps are even — $100 a band — so the cheapest time to sell is always before your battery crosses into the next band down, not after. Second, there's a floor: the deduction never pushes a quote below the model's minimum book price, which is why the last two rows match. A worn battery costs you hundreds, not everything.
Your battery doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be checked — because the band you're in today is worth $100 more than the band you'll be in next season.
The wider picture: what healthy iPhones pay right now
Battery aside, storage and condition set the rest of your number. These ranges start at a mid-spec configuration — the 512GB iPhone 17 Pro Max, the 256GB iPhone 16 and 256GB iPhone 15 — not the cheapest base model, and every figure assumes the 100% battery the book prices are built on.
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: Sealed $1,510–$1,760 · Like New $1,210–$1,410 · Good $1,060–$1,260 · Fair $960–$1,060, starting from the 512GB configuration. Full breakdown on our iPhone 17 Pro Max page.
- iPhone 16: Sealed $760–$790 · Like New $610–$710 · Good $570–$640 · Fair $510–$570, starting from the 256GB configuration.
- iPhone 15: Sealed $570–$630 · Like New $420–$480 · Good $370–$420 · Fair $320–$380, starting from the 256GB configuration.
Then apply your battery band on top: find your condition's figure, subtract $100 for each band below 100%, and you have a realistic number before you ever open the quote tool. When you're ready for the exact figure, it takes about 30 seconds on our sell your iPhone page — the price appears before any contact details.
Should you replace the battery before selling? (Almost never)
It's the obvious temptation: if a low battery costs $100 a band, surely a fresh battery buys it back? Run the arithmetic and it falls apart.
Apple's published Canadian battery-service prices run roughly $95 to $179 depending on the model, before tax. A replacement takes your phone back to 100% — but it only recovers the bands you actually lost. Sitting at 88%? You've lost two bands, so a perfect outcome gains you $200 and costs you most of that in the service bill, plus a trip, plus the wait. Sitting at 93%? You've lost one band — the repair costs more than the $100 it recovers, every time.
Money tip
The exception is narrow: a phone deep in the low bands, close to its next step down, where a battery you were already given free under AppleCare+ lifts it several bands at no cost. If the replacement isn't free, sell the phone as it is and let the next owner decide — the floor means your loss is capped anyway.
And no, there's no trick that raises the number before you sell. Battery health measures wear that has already happened; a week of gentle charging won't move it, and any buyer — us included — reads the percentage off the phone itself. The honest number, quoted honestly, is what gets you paid without a revised offer at the door.
Three myths that cost sellers money
- "Below 80% means it's worthless." No — Apple treats 80% as a service threshold, not a value cliff. On the ladder above, a 71–80% Pro Max still pays $910, and the floor protects even the most worn battery. Worth less is not worthless.
- "Battery health is the whole price." It's one step of four. Storage, condition and model move your number just as much — a 512GB phone at 85% routinely out-pays a 256GB phone at 100%. Check the battery, then check the whole quote.
- "I'll wait until I'm ready to upgrade." Batteries only move one direction. If your phone is a drawer phone — the backup you charge twice a year — every season it sits is a season closer to the next $100 step down. Selling while you're a band higher is the only version of timing you control.
Choosing where to sell matters as much as when: our pillar guide, Where to Sell Your Phone in Canada, weighs cash buyers against trade-in credit and Marketplace — and our walkthrough of selling your iPhone online in Canada covers the shipping route step by step.
Checked your number? Here's the rest of the sale
With your band in hand, the quote takes about 30 seconds: model, storage, condition, battery band — and the price appears before you give any contact details. Lock it, and it holds for 7 days while you back up and reset the phone.
Then hand it over your way: meet at a GO Transit station in 9 Ontario cities, arrange a free door-to-door pickup, or ship free from anywhere in Canada with free return shipping if you change your mind. Payment is same-day — cash at a local meetup or Interac e-Transfer. JustSell pays Ontario's highest payouts, has paid out over $2 million, and backs every quote with a Price-Beat Promise: bring a higher legitimate written quote from another Canadian buyer and we'll beat it.
Before the handover, back up, sign out of iCloud, turn off Find My iPhone, and factory reset — a phone still linked to your Apple Account can't be paid out until it's removed. Every device we buy is then verified wiped by a technician, with a data-wipe certificate emailed to you.
The bottom line
Your battery percentage is already part of your price — the only choice is whether you read it before or after a buyer does. Check the screen, find your band, and quote while you're still in it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my iPhone's battery health?
Open Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Health & Charging. The Maximum Capacity percentage on that screen is your battery health. On iPhone 15 and later, the same screen also shows your cycle count and the battery's manufacture and first-use dates.
How much does battery health affect my iPhone's selling price?
At JustSell, book prices assume a 100% battery and each band below it — 91–99%, 81–90%, 71–80% and so on — steps the quote down by $100, floored at the model's minimum book price. On a 512GB iPhone 17 Pro Max in Like New condition, that's $1,210 at 100%, $1,010 at 81–90% and $910 at 71–80%.
What battery health is good enough to sell an iPhone?
Any of them. A battery above 90% prices at its best, phones in the 80s are the most common we buy, and even a battery at 50% or below still sells — the deduction is floored at the model's minimum book price, so a worn battery caps your loss instead of wiping out the phone's value.
Is it worth replacing my iPhone battery before selling?
Almost never. Apple's Canadian battery service runs roughly $95 to $179 depending on the model, and a replacement only recovers $100 for each band it lifts you — usually less than the repair costs. The exception is a free AppleCare+ replacement that lifts you several bands at no cost.
Can I raise my battery health percentage before selling?
No. Maximum Capacity measures wear that has already happened, and it can't be restored by charging habits, settings or a reset. The number is read directly off the phone at the check, so the honest move is to quote with your real band — your locked price then holds for 7 days.
Does JustSell check battery health at the meetup?
Yes — the percentage is read from Settings during the device check, alongside the model, storage and condition you quoted. If everything matches, the locked price is the paid price, the same day, by cash or Interac e-Transfer.
Get the price for the battery you actually have
You know your number now — find out what it's worth. Get your exact quote in about 30 seconds, lock it for 7 days, and get paid the same day you hand the phone over.
