Released · Open source, MIT
MacStats
A Mac menu bar app showing CPU, GPU, RAM, temperature and free disk space, each item dropping down a panel that explains it.
Five menu bar items for a Mac, each with a panel that explains it.
CPU usage · GPU utilization · RAM in use · Temp of the hottest part · Disk free as Finder counts it
Each item is a small label over a value, at one width whatever it shows, so nothing beside it shifts. All five update every second, together for well under 1% of one core. MacStats asks for no permissions and causes no privacy prompts: it never opens the folders macOS guards (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Photos, Mail, other apps' data), and reads sensors and the GPU through public APIs plus the private ones the Stats app reads.
Built for Apple silicon (an M1 or later); an Intel Mac gets the same items from the sensors its chip reports, untested.
v1.0.0, released Oct 7, 2026 · release notes
With the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install), either
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/csarkosh/app-macstats/main/install.sh | sh
which builds MacStats on your Mac, puts it in ~/Applications, and starts it now and at every
login (a "Background Items Added" notice from macOS is information only), or
brew install csarkosh/tap/macstats
brew services start macstats
Use one or the other, or two copies run. To remove: install.sh --uninstall (the script again
with that flag), or brew services stop macstats && brew uninstall macstats. No Homebrew, Xcode
or Developer ID is needed for the first route: the app is built on your Mac, so macOS runs it
without a word.
Right-click any item for Quit. The items sit wherever macOS puts them; drag one with ⌘ held to move it.
A panel opens at menu level, above every window whichever app is in front; opening one closes any other, and a click anywhere outside closes it. Every legend key (a row with a coloured square, or a chart's legend) has a tooltip saying what it is: it appears after 0.75 s, stays as long as the pointer stays on the item, and is at most two short lines.
CPU
Two gauges: usage (normal under 60%, busy under 80%, heavy above) and the CPU's temperature on the chip's limits.
Usage: a three-minute chart with System (red) and User (blue) stacked and Idle the space above, then those three rows.
Load & frequency: two small three-minute charts. Core load is the 1-minute load average
as a share of the cores, with a dashed line at 100%: above it, tasks were queuing. Core
frequency is each core type's clock speed against its own top speed, so a line near the top
means those cores ran flat out. Each has its legend under it: Load 31% of cores, P-cores 3.68 of 4.46 GHz.
Top processes: the eight busiest, as ps counts them, refreshed every two seconds. The
header's icon opens Activity Monitor.
GPU
The same two gauges for the GPU.
Usage: a three-minute chart of utilization with Renderer and Tiler as lines, then those three
rows; then Framerate (62 Hz, the frames the displays showed), ML engine (how busy the
machine-learning cores are) and Memory (the GPU's memory in use as a share of the most macOS
lets it use, 0.49 / 11.84 GB), each with a small three-minute graph.
Top GPU apps: each app's share of GPU time over the last two seconds, as Activity Monitor's "% GPU" counts it.
RAM
Usage: a three-minute chart with App, Wired and Compressed stacked and Free on top, in the same colours as the rows under it; then Used with a bar, a row per part, and Swap with a small graph of the last three minutes against the Mac's memory. The figures are the ones Activity Monitor and Stats show.
Top processes: the eight using the most memory.
Temp
Two gauges: the hottest part on that part's own limits, and the Mac's power draw in tiers sized to the Mac (for an M4 MacBook Air: normal under 10 W, moderate under 20 W, high above).
Temperature: one row per part of the Mac, hottest first, with the numbered sensors grouped ("CPU performance core 1" to "4" are one row, weighted toward the hottest). Each row's square turns yellow and red at limits set per part, because parts differ: chips from 85 °C and 100 °C, the battery from 35 °C and 40 °C, the SSD from 50 °C and 70 °C, anything else from 60 °C and 80 °C.
Power: Total, Battery, Charger (while connected), the internal supply, and Battery left
(42.1/53.3 Wh (79%)). Fans, on a Mac with any.
Disk
Spaces: Used with a bar split by colour, then a row for each part, biggest first and Free
last: macOS system, update/boot, recovery, swap, my apps / files, other, Purgeable (space macOS
frees on its own, counted as free in the menu bar as Finder does) and Free, from diskutil's
APFS volumes.
My apps / files: that space broken down into folders three levels deep (100 MB and over,
biggest first, an app as one row), measured by allocated blocks like du -x. That takes about a
minute, so the panel keeps the last measurement for ten minutes and shows it (with
"Remeasuring…") while it measures again. Private folders are listed by name but never opened, so
they show no size and a folder holding one shows ≥. Double-click a folder to show it in Finder,
where Get Info gives a private folder's size.
MacStats (in ~/Applications/MacStats.app/Contents/MacOS/, or macstats from Homebrew) also
prints what the panels show, for scripts and agents:
MacStats --cpu | --gpu | --memory | --sensors # a panel's figures, tab-separated
MacStats --spaces | --legend | --report [folder] # the Disk panel's spaces, rows, folders
MacStats --render cpu|gpu|ram|temp|disk out.png # draws that menu bar item
MacStats --tooltips # every panel's tooltips
MacStats --heat "<row>" <°C> | --weigh <°C …> | --power-level <W>
MacStats --show-panel cpu,disk # runs, opening those panels as clicks would
MacStats --version
A Swift package that needs only the Command Line Tools:
make app # build/MacStats.app
make install # the same as the curl script, from this checkout
make test # builds a debug MacStats and runs Tests/MacStatsTests against it
The tests are a program rather than XCTest, which the Command Line Tools do not ship. Each
feature is one file in Sources/MacStats/ (CPU.swift, GPU.swift, RAM.swift,
Temp.swift, Disk.swift), with MenuKit.swift for what the items and panels share and
HoverTip.swift for the tooltips; main.swift starts the items and holds the command line. The
screenshots above come from scripts/previews.sh; the one at the top is a screenshot of the
screen's top with the CPU panel open, cut and faded by scripts/compose-hero.swift --finish. See AGENTS.md for how the pieces
fit and how a release is made.
MIT; see LICENSE. SMC.swift and SensorCatalog.swift are adapted from
Stats by Serhiy Mytrovtsiy (MIT,
LICENSE-stats.txt), and the CPU, GPU and memory figures are read the way
Stats reads them. The menu bar items are drawn like Stats' "mini" widgets, and the panels in its
style, because Stats is the app this grew out of: it shows the pieces Stats could not show as
wanted (free disk space over a label, temperatures grouped by part, memory and GPU charts with
every part its own colour).