"How long will my Mac last?" is one of those questions that gets answered with folklore — "Macs last forever", "they slow down on purpose", "seven years and it's a brick". We see thousands of used Macs a year across our bench, from mint M4 machines to iMacs that have spent a decade in a school IT cupboard, so here's the honest version. The short answer: a Mac has three different lifespans, and they end at different times.
Lifespan one: software support
This is the one Apple controls. A new Mac typically receives around seven years of new macOS versions from its release date, followed by roughly two further years of security updates for the last version it can run. So a Mac bought new today can reasonably expect security patches into the mid-2030s.
The big cliff in 2026 is the Intel one. Apple has confirmed that macOS Tahoe is the final version for Intel Macs — every Mac from the Intel era is now on borrowed software time, running its last macOS with a security-updates countdown. Apple Silicon machines, starting with the M1 in late 2020, are the only ones still on the new-versions train, and the M1 is holding on well: a six-year-old M1 MacBook Air still runs the current macOS in 2026.
Apple also has two official labels worth knowing. A product becomes vintage when Apple stopped selling it more than five years ago (repairs depend on parts availability) and obsolete at seven, when Apple service stops entirely. Neither label kills the machine — it just means you're on your own for official repairs.
Lifespan two: the hardware itself
Here's where the folklore is closest to true: Mac hardware genuinely endures. The aluminium unibody design has no meaningful wear-out date, and we routinely see ten-year-old machines arrive in fully working order. But specific components age at their own pace:
Batteries are the first to go on laptops. Modern MacBook batteries are rated for around 1,000 charge cycles before dropping below 80% of original capacity — for a typical user that's four to six years before the battery becomes the thing you notice. It's a consumable, not a fault: a tired battery on an otherwise healthy Mac is normal ageing. (It's also why cycle count is part of how used Macs are graded.)
Storage tells two stories. Pure SSDs age gracefully — most will outlive the rest of the machine. The Fusion Drives fitted to many 2013–2020 iMacs are the weak point of that era: the spinning-disk half slows with age, and it's usually why an older iMac "feels" ancient when its processor is actually fine.
Keyboards deserve an honest mention: the butterfly mechanism used on laptops from roughly 2015 to 2019 remains the least reliable component Apple has shipped in the modern era. If you own one of those machines and the keyboard works, it's already beaten the odds.
Desktops outlast laptops, consistently. No battery, no hinge, no life in a rucksack — the iMacs and Mac minis that cross our bench are, year for year, in better shape than the MacBooks.
Lifespan three: real-world usefulness
This is the lifespan people actually care about, and it's the one that ends first — not when the Mac dies, but when it stops comfortably doing what you need. In practice:
An Apple Silicon Mac (2020 onwards) has years of comfortable use ahead — the M1 was such a leap that even the first-generation machines still feel current for everyday work. An Intel Mac from 2017–2020 works fine today but sits on the software cliff described above; it's a perfectly good machine entering its final act. Anything older than about 2015 is in enthusiast territory: still functional, increasingly locked out of current browsers, apps and security updates. (There's a lively community keeping older Macs on modern macOS via OpenCore Legacy Patcher, but that's a hobby, not a plan.)
So what's the honest number?
Eight to ten years of genuinely useful life is a fair expectation for a well-kept Mac — longer for desktops, a little shorter for hard-travelled laptops. That's the machine working and supported and pleasant to use, which is the definition that matters.
Two things extend it: keep it on mains power sensibly rather than cycling the battery to zero daily, and don't ignore storage — a Mac gasping at a 95% full drive feels years older than it is. And one thing quietly shortens the value lifespan rather than the useful one: waiting. A Mac loses resale value every year it sits in a drawer after you've stopped using it, which is the gentlest commercial observation we'll make here — whether you sell it, pass it on, or recycle it, a Mac's second life starts sooner and goes further the earlier it begins. If you're curious what stage yours is at, our grading guide shows how condition is actually assessed.