Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a method for classifying a battery cell. The method may include: measuring load cycles of the cell using a coulometry apparatus; repeating the measurement until an abort criterion is met; determining values for a discharge capacity of the battery cell using a first and a second calculation rule; wherein a calibration is input differently into the first and the second rule; carrying out an optimization method to determine a calibration of the current measurement with the greatest match between the first and the second discharge capacity; determining an aging criterion for the battery cell based on the result of the measurement; and sorting the battery cell into one of several classification ranges based on the aging criterion.