Many of us are quite used to carrying around a handy power bank to top up our iPhone batteries during a long day away from a power socket, but these pocketable battery packs are usually not powerful enough to keep an unplugged and energy-hungry MacBook going all day.

We’ve rounded up the best portable laptop power banks with battery capacities high enough to recharge a fading Apple MacBook if you won’t be able to plug it into an electrical outlet for some time.

Despite new laptops boasting improved battery life duration, it’s easy for your trusty MacBook to lose power after a day of intense meetings and PowerPoint presentations. No one wants to see the Mac’s “Your battery is running low” warning, especially when halfway through watching a downloaded Netflix series on a long-haul flight.

We looked at seven main factors for recommending laptop power banks: battery capacity, charging speed, total power output, power input, USB ports, portability and safety.

Power bank battery capacity

The larger the laptop power bank’s capacity the more charges it will be able to give your MacBook.

While nearly all laptop power banks give their battery capacity in milliamp hours (mAh) it’s more instructional to know the battery capacity in watt hours (Wh) as Wh provides a more accurate estimation of a battery’s energy capacity for devices with varying power requirements.

A 13-inch MacBook Air has a battery capacity of around 50Wh. The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s battery is rated at nearly twice that—just under 100Wh. To find out the Wh rating of your MacBook, check our our list of all the MacBook battery capacities.

In theory, a 100Wh power bank could recharge the smaller laptop twice and the larger one once. While it’s not quite that simple, you will certainly get more charge from a power bank with a higher Wh rating.

Watt hours is also the measure used by airlines to determine whether you can carry the power bank onto a plane with you: see below our list of the best MacBook power banks for national and international in-flight battery regulations.

Manufacturers are required to mark lithium-ion batteries with the watt-hour rating, but it’s often not clearly indicated on the packaging or on the power bank itself—look for some tiny writing on one side of the battery pack and you’ll eventually find the Wh rating. Don’t worry, we’ve done that for you in our recommendations below. You can calculate the number of watt-hours your battery provides if you know the battery’s nominal voltage (V) and capacity in ampere-hours (Ah), by using this calculation: Ah x V = Wh.

If you know only the battery’s milliampere hours (mAh), divide that number by 1,000 to get the ampere-hours (Ah). For example, 1200mAh divided by 1,000 = 1.2Ah. Then multiply that number by the power bank’s voltage.

Battery to laptop charging speed

The speed at which a power bank can charge your laptop is important, especially if you are charging the MacBook while using it.

Like any USB-C charger, look for the wattage at which the power bank can output power. A small laptop requires perhaps as little as 40W to keep it powered up. A larger MacBook might require 65W or 100W. A 16-inch MacBook Pro can be fast-charged at 140W.

In technical terms, chargers and power banks have a USB PD (Power Delivery) rating. PD 3.0 has a maximum power output of 100W. PD 3.1 (useful for the 16-inch MacBook Pro) can output at 140W. The PD rating is assigned to each USB port (see below).

That top-end MacBook can be charged at 100W, but it will take longer to charge. If you use a much lower wattage charger, or power bank, your MacBook battery might not fill up as fast because the laptop battery is being used by your applications.

As such we haven’t looked at any laptop power bank rated at under 65W and make recommendations for each power bank we have tested as to which MacBook model it is best suited for.

It is fine to use a 140W PD 3.1 charger or power bank on a smaller laptop—nothing untoward will happen as the power output is regulated by the laptop being powered. Indeed, you can safely charge your AirPods case with a 140W charger even though it won’t take more than 5W.

Total power output

A power bank with multiple ports will also have a maximum total output, which is how much power all the ports can give out together at one time when each is connected to a different device.

A power bank might have two ports each rated at 100W, but if the total power output is 100W then that power will be shared between the ports. Look for a total power output that means the power bank can handle charging multiple devices at the same time at full speed.

Power input

Power Input is the wattage at which the power bank itself can be charged via a USB-C charger. Again, the more watts, the faster the charge up to the power bank’s full capacity.

USB ports

A power bank needs at least one USB port to carry the power from itself to the device being charged. USB ports today come in two basic varieties: old-school rectangular USB-A and modern reversible USB-C.

You will get the fastest charge using USB-C at the power bank end. At the MacBook end, the USB-C end of the cable will connect with the MacBook’s Thunderbolt port, which is identical to USB-C in looks and basic operation. Thunderbolt is backward compatible with USB-C.

Look for power banks with multiple USB ports so you can charge more than one device at a time: more than one laptop, or a laptop plus a phone or two, or your AirPods case and Apple Watch. A USB-A port might be useful if you need to power-up a device whose charger uses the older standard; for example, a Fitbit.

Power vs portability

There are some giant power banks, usually called portable power stations, that can keep a family going all weekend, but they are way too large to carry with you on your travels. Our sister site PCWorld.com has tested the best of these much larger portable power stations.

As a rule, the higher the battery capacity, the larger and heavier the power bank. We have included size and weight so you can determine if each power bank suits your traveling needs. Some laptop power banks are built to last in the great outdoors so will feature more rugged IP-rated shells; read on for our reviews below.

There are much smaller, lighter and more portable power banks for phones—check out our recommendations of the best power banks for iPhone. You could use some of these to recharge a laptop but we recommend the power banks tested and reviewed here for the best results when powering up a laptop.

Power bank safety

Batteries can present a fire risk in certain circumstances, such as rapid overheating (a process called thermal runaway), overcharging and exposure to high temperatures.

As such we recommend only power banks from trusted, premium manufacturers with a long record of producing safe, high-quality products. You will find cheaper power banks, but we believe that the safety of the device you are charging, your home or office, plus your bag if carrying it around with you, are paramount.

If you want to take your power bank on a plane, there are also regulations to abide by—or you’ll be leaving it at the Security Desk. See below the chart of our favorite laptop power banks for international airline rules on permitted power banks and batteries.

Which power bank is best for your MacBook in 2025?

We have indicated which models of MacBook we think each power bank is best suited to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pair any with different MacBooks. The 16-inch MacBook Pro can be fast-charged at 140W (using Apple’s USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable) so owners of that model should look for a PD 3.1 power bank. But even a 13-inch MacBook Air will work well with the higher-capacity power banks. They might not charge any faster, but they will be recharged more times if you pick a high-capacity battery pack.

Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power B

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