Thanks tigerdunes,
As I said I just think I'm more aware of it turning on and off. I also put a $16K AC system into my old house 2 years before moving and I have no desire to replace this system any time soon - hence I want to maximize the longevity of the current system and just be sure it's not cycling too much and putting unnecessary wear and tear on the unit.

Been waiting for a 90F + degree day to see how it does under some greater load but that hasn't happened even once this year.....

Thanks for your comment....

You are going to get some short cycles on mild days when system is not fully loaded. That's completely normal. Save your money and put it toward routine PMs. I assume your electric bills are not out of line.

IMO

What temperature are you setting on the thermostat? In what room is the thermostat located? What humidity level are you setting on the thermostat? Does the room with the thermostat get a lot of direct sunlight or have equipment that generates heat?

Buy a inexpensive digital thermometer and humidity gauge. There are many choices on Amazon. Monitor the temperature near the thermostat. If there is a vent near the thermostat try closing to see if that improves the cycling duration.

I can understand the AC may come on frequently during the day when the sun is shining. But the night time cycling would bother me. The house temperature and humidity is fairly constant at night. The AC does not need to cycle so frequently.

The t-stat is in the master bedroom on the wall opposite where the ceiling supply vent is in the room (~8 feet apart) and directly beneath a small return vent. Additionally, it's next to the bedroom door going into the hallway where the main return vent is located. I'm not sure what the CFM is on the air handler but when the unit turns on there is a very noticeable "breeze" that can be felt around most vents and it's particularly noticeable in around the t-stat. We set the temp at 68F and leave it alone and there's not humidity control.

The t-stat in the old system (where I didn't notice frequent cycling with this t-stat) was located in a hallway under a large return vent and with no supply vent anywhere near it - supply vents were in bedrooms only. The air felt the least conditioned here I guess because of the large return vent above the area.

I feel like the nighttime cycling has to do with the t-stat's 1F tolerance combined with it's close proximity to a supply vent. In other words, outside air temp is 70F meaning not much cooling is needed but with the 1F temp tolerance it's enough to kick the system on only to produce a cold draft and very quickly drops the temp to 68F and kicks it off. It kicks on at again at 69F and off at 68F. That's why I was wondering if a t-stat that would allow me to adjust that to say 3F would be better? If set the t-stat at 68F it would take additional time for the temp to rise to 71F before the system turned on again.

A thermostat that allows you to increase the temperature tolerance would help.

I get the chills thinking you set the temperature to 68 degrees. I feel cold if is 75 degrees at 40% humidity. It is much harder to keep the house at 68 compared to 75. I can understand why the AC is coming on so frequently.

Is it 68 degrees in all rooms of the house? Are you setting it to 68 in the master bedroom in order to compensate for other rooms being too warm?

The temperature is pretty uniform throughout the house especially upstairs. Downstairs is supplemented by a through-the-wall 25000 BTU unit because there are half as many supply vents down stairs and some rooms have no supply vents at all - including a room with cathedral ceilings and 4 skylights but that 25K BTU unit can cool the entire downstairs easily. So 68F is just where I like it. Everyone at work knows to wear a sweater in the summer because I love my AC.

I was wondering how you were able to cool a 2600 sq. foot house down to 68 degrees with a 4 ton condenser. You have an additional 2 tons on the first floor!

Even in the old house (ranch with southwest facing windows and 2600sqft of conditioned space - 1000sqft in finished basement didn't have AC) the 4-ton Trane unit (seemingly) easily kept the house at 68F even on 95F days - although it ran 100% of the time.