The effect of the charging protocol on the cycle life of a commercial 18650 Li-ion cell was studied using three methods: (1) constant current (CC) charging, (2) constant power (CP) charging, and (3) multistage constant current (MCC) charging. The MCC-charging consists of two CC steps, which starts with a low current to charge the initial 10% capacity followed by a high current charging until the cell voltage reaches 4.2V. Using these methods, respectively, the cell was charged to 4.2V followed by a constant voltage (CV) charging until the current declined to 0.05C. Results showed that the cycle life of the cell strongly depended on the charging protocol even if the same charging rate was used. Among these three methods, the CC-method was found to be more suitable for slow charging (0.5C) while the CP-method was better for fast charging (1C). Impedance analyses indicated that the capacity loss during cycling was mainly attributed to the increase of charge-transfer resistance as a result of the progressive growth of surface layers on the surface of two electrodes. Fast charging resulted in an accelerated capacity fading due to the loss of Li+ ions and the related growth of a surface layer, which was associated with metallic lithium plating onto the anode and a high polarization at the electrolyte–electrode interface. Analyses of the cell electrochemistry showed that use of a reduced current to charge the initial 10% capacity and near the end of charge, respectively, was favorable for long cycle life.