Durability is most challenging in the development of all kinds of fuel cells. For commercialization fuel cells have to achieve lifetimes comparable to those of the traditional technologies. The US Department of Energy has set the fuel cell lifetime targets ranging from 1,500 to 60,000 hours for different applications.

The durability of a fuel cell is affected by many factors, including the materials themselves, the operational condition, the control strategy, and the design of the system. The operational condition includes temperature, relatively humidity, pressure, contaminants, reactant stoichiometric ratio, temperature cycling, relative humidity (RH) cycling, voltage cycling, open circuit voltage (OCV), and formation of an oxidizer/fuel boundary (such as O₂/H₂ boundary) at the electrode. With careful design and engineering and proper control algorithm the impacts of temperature, relative humidity, pressure, contaminants, reactant stoichiometric ratio, RH cycling, and temperature cycling can be avoided or controlled. However, the detrimental impacts of the OCV and the oxidizer/fuel boundary have not been satisfactorily resolved to date.