Each model of Mac has peculiarities that require examining technical specs to figure out how many displays you can attach and of which kind.
Apple went all in on USB-C, starting with the introduction of the now-discontinued 12-inch MacBook in 2015. For a while, you could buy a Mac with one, two, or four USB-C ports, all of which were also Thunderbolt 3 capable, except the 12-inch MacBook. With the introduction of Apple silicon and Thunderbolt 4, as well as faster flavors of USB 3 over USB-C, it seems like every Mac introduced since about 2018 has its own port story.
The number of USB-C ports on a Mac has almost no relationship with the number of displays you can connect, however. The internal workings of the Mac’s graphical processor units (GPUs) and display controllers to which they’re connected determine Apple’s formula for the total number of displays, as does the resolution (number of pixels) of the attached monitors.
