The M1 MBP? That is what I am using (1TB/16GB model) and I easily get the 17 hours stated for web use. Even doing development in Xcode I can go 13-15 hours. It is the most impressed I have been with a laptop since the introduction of multi-core mobile CPUs.

What display brightness are you using? When I bought my M1 MBP it had a setting that made the display darker when I am not plugging it, but in reality when I'm outside on the sun, that's when I really need it to be bright. Still, even if I get 10-14 hours, I love it (also the fact that I can use 1 charger for almost all of my devices).

I am usually around 50-60%. I don't work outside though so never need to crank it up. I find it automatically adjusts it fine.

Intel based* sorry did not make the distinction.

If you have any electron apps that are still running through Rosetta (seems possible with chat apps), those are known to chew through battery like crazy. It may be worth keeping those in a browser tab until they get ARM native builds.

My M1 Air can easily go 12 hours on Xcode with several iOS simulators open. My friend with an M1 Air also gets similar battery life.

I'd strongly recommend resetting the system, and perhaps getting a warranty replacement if you continue to experience poor battery life with email, chat, couple browser tabs. That absolutely should not be happening.