How to Show CPU Usage in the Mac Menu Bar

You want to glance up and see how hard your Mac is working, the way you see the time or your Wi-Fi signal, without opening Activity Monitor every time something feels slow.

The short answer: macOS cannot show CPU usage in the menu bar on its own. The menu bar controls in System Settings cover things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Battery and Sound, but there is no CPU meter among them. The closest built-in options are Activity Monitor's Dock icon and its floating CPU window. For a real menu bar reading you need a small menu bar app, and MacStats does it for free.

What macOS can do on its own

Activity Monitor has two CPU displays that stay visible while you work. We checked both on a MacBook Air running macOS 27.0.1.

Turn the Dock icon into a CPU meter

1. Open Activity Monitor (in Applications, then Utilities, or search for it with Spotlight).
2. In the menu bar, choose View > Dock Icon > Show CPU Usage.

The Activity Monitor icon in the Dock becomes a small live bar of CPU load. Show CPU History in the same menu draws a scrolling graph instead. It works only while Activity Monitor is open, and it lives in the Dock, so you cannot see it while the Dock is hidden.

Keep a floating CPU window on top

1. In Activity Monitor, choose Window > CPU Usage for a compact live meter, or Window > CPU History for a graph per core.
2. Choose Window > Keep CPU Windows on Top so it stays above your other windows.

You can close the main Activity Monitor window and keep only the small one. It is a window, not a menu bar item, so it takes up space on your screen and disappears behind a full-screen app.

Check CPU usage in Terminal

For a one-off reading without opening an app, run:

top -l 1 -n 0 | grep "CPU usage"

It prints one line, split into time spent on apps (user), time spent on macOS itself (sys) and idle time. On our test Mac it read:

CPU usage: 3.92% user, 11.76% sys, 84.31% idle

Add the first two numbers together for the total load, about 16% in this case. It is a snapshot, not a live view. Our guide to checking CPU usage on a Mac explains how to read the full list of processes in Activity Monitor.

Show live CPU usage in the menu bar with MacStats

MacStats is a native menu bar app for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 13 Ventura or later. It shows CPU load as a percentage in the menu bar, next to memory, disk, network and battery if you want them. The menu bar monitor is free, needs no account, and the free version does not expire.

CPU is shown by default. To change what appears:

1. Click the MacStats item in the menu bar and click the gear icon, or right-click the item and choose Preferences....
2. Open the Menu Bar tab.
3. Under Metrics Displayed, turn on CPU Load for the percentage, and CPU Graph to add a small graph of recent CPU load next to it.
4. Under Appearance, Graph Type switches the graph between bars and a line, and Graph Theme sets its color.

The reading refreshes every 2 seconds by default. Refresh Frequency on the General tab changes it to every second, or to every 3 seconds to save battery.

Keep the menu bar tidy

If several metrics take up too much room, turn on Collapse To One Metric under Space Saving. The menu bar then shows a single value, CPU unless you choose another under Always Visible Metric, and the rest appear when you rest the pointer on it.

Find out what is using the CPU

A number in the menu bar tells you something is busy, not what. Click the MacStats item to open the dashboard, which lists your own apps and processes using the most CPU right now. With MacStats Pro, clicking a process gives you a plain-English explanation of what it is and whether you need to act. If Activity Monitor shows a system process you do not recognise at the top, such as kernel_task or WindowServer, our guides explain what each one does.

See your Mac's CPU load at a glance, all day.

Download MacStats for Free

Other menu bar monitors exist too. Stats is free and open source and also runs on Intel Macs, which MacStats does not, and iStat Menus is a paid app with the widest hardware sensor coverage. Our comparison of MacStats, Stats and iStat Menus sets out what each one offers and costs.

For other apps that earn a place in the menu bar, see our list of the best menu bar apps for Mac.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Mac show CPU usage in the menu bar without an app?

No. macOS has no built-in menu bar CPU meter. Activity Monitor can show CPU load in its Dock icon or in a small floating window, but not in the menu bar.

How do I show CPU usage in the Dock?

Open Activity Monitor and choose View, then Dock Icon, then Show CPU Usage. The Dock icon shows live CPU load for as long as Activity Monitor is open.

How do I check CPU usage in Terminal?

Run top -l 1 -n 0 | grep "CPU usage". Add the user and sys figures together for the total CPU load at that moment.

Is there a free app to show CPU usage in the menu bar?

Yes. MacStats shows CPU load in the menu bar for free, with an optional graph of recent CPU load. Its paid Pro version adds plain-English explanations, history and smart alerts.

Does showing CPU usage in the menu bar slow down a Mac?

A native menu bar monitor uses very little. MacStats measures at roughly 1% CPU and 65 MB of memory while monitoring on an Apple silicon Mac.