Put Activity Monitor’s numbers in your Mac menu bar

Activity Monitor can’t put anything in the menu bar. Its live graphs go in its Dock icon (View, Dock Icon) or in small CPU windows from the Window menu, and only while it’s running. To keep CPU, memory, network and disk in the menu bar, add one Multimeter meter for each; a Script meter adds the busiest process by name, like the top row of Activity Monitor.

Multimeter’s built-in faces, running live on sample data.

What macOS shows on its own

Activity Monitor has three ways to show its numbers outside its main window. None of them is in the menu bar.

  • The Dock icon. Choose View, Dock Icon, then Show CPU Usage, Show CPU History, Show Network Usage or Show Disk Activity. Show Application Icon puts the normal icon back. There’s no memory option. The network graph shows packets or data, whichever you picked in the pop-up menu above the graph on the Network tab.
  • Floating CPU windows. Window, CPU Usage shows current load; Window, CPU History shows recent activity as a graph; Window, GPU History does the same for the graphics processor. Window, Keep CPU Windows on Top keeps them above your other windows.
  • The tabs. CPU, Memory, Disk and Network each list processes, with totals at the bottom of the window: System, User and Idle for CPU; Memory Pressure and Memory Used for memory; data received and sent per second for network.

All three update every 5 seconds by default (View, Update Frequency) and stop when you quit Activity Monitor.

Using Activity Monitor because the Mac feels slow? Why is my Mac so slow? walks through the CPU and Memory tabs. If kernel_task is at the top of the CPU list, see What is kernel_task?

How Multimeter shows it

Each meter is its own item in the menu bar, so you choose which of Activity Monitor’s numbers to keep and in what order.

  • CPU: total use across all cores, 0 to 100% for the whole Mac, every 3 seconds on power and about every 6 on battery.
  • Memory: the same Memory Used figure as Activity Monitor’s Memory tab, as a percent of your RAM, every 5 seconds on power.
  • Network: download or upload in bytes per second across Wi-Fi and Ethernet, one meter per direction, every 3 seconds on power.
  • Disk Space: how full the startup disk or an external drive is, counted the way Finder counts it, once a minute.
  • Meters can warn you: CPU defaults to a warning above 70% and critical above 90%, memory to 80% and 90%.
  • Five live meters together measured about 3% CPU on a busy test Mac, and they pause while the displays sleep.

These built-in meters show totals, never process names. For the name of the app at the top of Activity Monitor’s CPU list, see the next section.

Set it up

  1. Choose Add Meter… and pick CPU. Pick a face: Needle Gauge for the number now, Sparkline for the last few minutes, like CPU History.
  2. Add a Memory meter, a Network meter (and a second one set to Upload if you want both directions) and a Disk Space meter the same way.
  3. To see which app is busy, add the Busiest process Script meter (below).
  4. Set alert levels on any meter you want a warning from. Activity Monitor can go back to Show Application Icon.

Every face works with every source it lists. See all 35 faces running live.

The busiest process, by name

Activity Monitor’s most useful line is the top row of the CPU tab. The Busiest process recipe puts it in the menu bar: a Script meter runs ps, which comes with macOS, every 5 seconds and shows the name and percent, like Google Chrome 100%. Like Activity Monitor, it counts each core as 100%, so a busy process can show 150% or more. The recipe also has a version that shows the process using the most memory.

Limits

Multimeter has no GPU meter and no disk activity meter (reads and writes per second): for those, Activity Monitor’s GPU History window and Disk Activity Dock icon are the way. It doesn’t show memory pressure either, only Memory Used. Its CPU meter is a total for the whole Mac, where Activity Monitor’s % CPU column counts each core as 100%.

Questions

Can Activity Monitor show in the Mac menu bar?

No. Activity Monitor has no menu bar item. It can show CPU usage, CPU history, network usage or disk activity in its Dock icon (View, Dock Icon), and CPU windows that float on top (Window menu), but only while it’s open.

What can the Activity Monitor Dock icon show?

CPU Usage, CPU History, Network Usage or Disk Activity, or the normal icon (Show Application Icon). Choose View, Dock Icon in Activity Monitor. There’s no memory option.

Does Activity Monitor have to stay open for the Dock graph?

Yes. The Dock icon and the CPU windows update only while Activity Monitor is running. Multimeter’s meters run from the menu bar on their own.

Can I see which app is using the CPU from the menu bar?

Not with the built-in CPU meter, which shows the total. The Busiest process recipe is a Script meter that shows the top process name and its percent, the same as the top row of Activity Monitor.

Do the meters slow my Mac down?

Five live meters together measured about 3% CPU on a busy test Mac, and they pause while the displays sleep.

Sources

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