Mac OS is slightly different from other operating system like Windows and Linux. It has different feature and comes with extra layer of security so that’s why everyone prefer to use MacBook Pro to work on it. But it’s doesn’t mean that MacOS doesn’t have any pain point to the users. Sometime MacBook started to overheat and causes to system failure. MacBook Pro 2018 and 2019 & 2020 version most causes issue was overheating. Did you realize that you can check CPU temp on Mac with macbook temperature monitor apps.
Monitoring temperature on Mac is easiest way to keep eye on Mac health and extend CPU usages to stop or kill unused process. On regular basis you need to check mac temperature to lagging off your device. If you are a gamer or high end vide editor these process takes extra memory from your system and cause to overheat in that case, you can cool down your mac by checking macbook temperature monitor.
- Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. If you have an Intel Core processor, Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) is.
- Download temp monitor mac for free. System Tools downloads - Temp Monitor by VIMI Studios and many more programs are available for instant and free download.
It's a great tool to watch CPU speed and temps when you do tough work, or if it ever feels slow. And don't worry if you see high temps, these intel chips have a T JUNCTION value (max temp) of 100c. Temperature Monitor - CPU, GPU is an Android app and cannot be installed on Windows PC or MAC directly. Android Emulator is a software application that enables you to run Android apps and games on a PC by emulating Android OS.
Mac OS default App activity monitor also help to keep and eye on your Mac process but it unable to help in check CPU temp on mac. Activity monitor only list all current activities running on the system and you can also force quit to the task. But you know that built in activity monitor is not good enough to monitor temperature on mac.
How to Check CPU Temperature on Mac
There are few steps which can help you to check CPU temperature on mac and even you can also use best mac temperature monitor apps for it lets start the process.
What is The Ideal CPU Temperature on Mac?
So, this depends on model to model, but we can assume that generally our room temperature in between 21 to 24 degree Celsius and your Mac good enough 10 degree Celsius more on room temperature. Like if your Mac temperature in between 30 to 35 that’s ok you no need to extra take care of it.
But your Macbook temperature monitor software count it to more then 35-degree Celsius then you need to fix it. Because high CPU temp on mac can cause to leg your mac, slow down its performance and even sometime crash your OS too.
So Why You need to monitor CPU temp on mac
There is multiple reason for why you need temperature monitoring software for mac. You can benchmark your newly Mac machine or you can want to find out what your CPU fan working. Sometimes we just want to install high end game which is not supported by our used version of Mac. In that case Mac CPU start heating and temperature goes high. But you can easily check mac temperature by using following best mac temperature monitoring software.
List of Best Mac Temperature Monitor Apps
Checkout this amazing macbook CPU temperature monitor list which can help to diagnose actual problem in your mac.
1. Fanny Widget for Mac
Developer: Fanny
Price: Free
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.6/5.0
Version: 2.3.0
Compatibility: Mac OS 10.11 or later
Fanny is basically widget for your Mac OS to monitor your Mac Fans. It also shows your Mac CPU temp and GPU temp. You can check CPU temperature on mac with Fanny Widget and notification center. Here are few feature of fanny widget best mac temperature monitor app.
- Get information of current speed, target speed, min/max speed
- Real time fan speed
- Real time CPU temperature
- Real time GPU temperature
2. Temp Monitor from VimiStudios
Developer: Vimistudios
Price: $4.99
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.6/5.0
Version: 1.4.2(53)
Compatibility: OS X 10.11 or later. Intel, 64-bit processor.
Temp monitor is beautiful temperature monitor app for mac which show you all available sensor in your MacBook Pro. Here are few features of this mac temperature monitor app for mac.
- Support for all available sensor on mac
- You can even customize overheat temperature process
- Check and view every fan speed
- Fan control on auto and manual way
- Also support MacBook Pro touch bar
It’s all feature makes it your make cooler while overheating. It helps you to display audio and visual notification from MacOS notification center. If you like it and want to give it try just use trial version first or buy it just in $4.99 to make your Mac CPU cooler.
3 iStats Menu 6
Developer: Bjango
Price: $11.79
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.4/5.0
Version: 6.4
Compatibility: OS X 10.11 or later. For lower version use 5.32 version
iStats menu 6 is specially design for CPU usages. It shows highly detailed CPU information with current usages for every single core, history graphs and load average time. Sensor supporting help you to manage temperature of your CPU and GPU, hard drive temperature, GPU frequency, voltage, current, power, and Fan Speed. So, we can say that this is the one of the best MacBook Pro CPU temperature monitor app.
Not even with temperature it also helps you in Weather, uptime, network connection and shows the usages of every single process. Buy this or try for free to iStats Menu 6.
4. TG Pro from Tunabelly
Developer: Tunabelly Software
Price: $20 (Currently Offer $10 only)
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.4/5.0
Version: 2.48
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later.
Extend your MacBook life with this amazing CPU temperature monitor app. TG Pro works with OS X version 10.10 or later. No matter you are using 2016 MacBook Pro model or 2020 newly launched model. It helps to optimize temperature and check CPU fan speed of every Mac machine.
If your Mac getting hot or overheating you can manually boost your fan speed and make it cooler. It also shows the full log detail of every process. The best part is that it shows every CPU core temperature separately so you can easily check and work accordingly.
5. XRG from Gaucho
Developer: Gaucho Software
Price: Open Source/Free
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Version: 2.8.2
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later. (Also Support 10.5 and 10.6)
XRG is free and open source mac System monitor software. It helps you to monitor CPU and GPU activity. Along with these features it also monitors your MacBook memory usages, battery status, machine temperature, Fan Speed, and Weather information.
6. Menubar Stats 3
Developer: Seense
Price: $4.99
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Version: 3.4
Compatibility: OS X 10.12 or later.
After very long time Menubar Stats revamped from version 2 to version 3. Menubar 3 is one of best CPU temp check mac app which composed of CPU, Disk, Network, Bluetooth etc. Its keep and eye on your MacBook CPU usages, memory status, disk usages and internet connection. It also takes you of Mac machine battery life. It also helps to manage your Bluetooth, CPU fan speed, GPU, and temperature.
7. MonityApp for OS X
MonityApp is advanced Mac temperature monitoring widget for your Mac. It helps you to manage your current running app statistics, sensor, temperature, Fan Speed, CPU utilization, memory usages, impact of currently running applications and power consumption of your MacBook.
It indicates to Realtime CPU usages, battery status and sensor help to check Fan speed and outside weather report. MonityApp individual dashboard shows you all data in single place.
8. Smart Utility
Developer: Volitans Software
Price: $25
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Version: 3.2.6
Compatibility: OS X 10.9 to 10.15.
Smart Utility is best mac temperature monitoring software which diagnose your hardware usages. Smart mean Self-monitoring, Analysis, and reporting technology. Here are few features of Smart Utility.
- Display easy to read overall smart status with color.
- Display information in menu bar
- It also supports scan in background.
- It also supports printing driver support.
9. CoconutBattery 3
Developer: Coconut Flavour
Price: $25
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Version: 3.9
Compatibility: OS X 10.12 to 10.15.
Coconut battery always keep you updated about battery health information of your Mac, iPhone, iPad. Along with mac temperature monitor it also shows age of your device and battery, how often the battery charged and many other information.
10. iStatistica 4
Developer: Imagetasks
Price: $5.99
Demo Version: Available to Try
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Version: 4.6.2
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later.
iStatistica is best mac check temperature app for everyone. It shows you system summary, battery information, network activity and temperature sensor and fans monitor. All these features make it best mac system monitoring widget. Here are few features of iStatistica.
- System Monitoring, Up time, memory used etc.
- Battery information
- Network activity
- Menu bar monitors
- Web access and API
- Plug in support for Fans, Sensor etc.
Frequently Ask Question for Mac Temperature Monitor.
Que 1: What is the normal Mac temperature.
Answer: Normal temperature of your Mac is almost like room temperature. It’s not more exceeding to 35 degree Celsius to that’s why you need this mac temperature monitor software.
Que 2: How Do I Check CPU temp on MacBook Pro
Answer: MacBook Pro of 2019 and 2018 model have heating issue. If you also used these version MacBook Pro, then you need to extra aware when using your Mac. Generally, every Mac has inbuilt Activity monitor Widget which help to shows you all information about CPU, GPU and fan speed. But for more details and cooling down your MacBook temperature you can use these CPU monitoring apps from above list.
Que 3. How Do I Monitor on Mac Temperature?
Answer: You can temp monitor Mac temperature with default activity monitor app. But you want to check detailed information like CPU temperature, GPU temperature, Sensor monitor, FAN speed etc. then you must use above mentioned MacBook temperature monitor software.
Que. 4 How do I Know if my MacBook Pro is overheating?
Answer: If your MacBook pro start noising after few hours of working or your Fan blow warm air with more noises and sometime your MacBook Pro start lagging in normal work these all symptoms of MacBook Pro overheating.
Que. 5: What is the Ideal Temperature of My Mac CPU while running
Answer: Normal Mac CPU temperature ideally to same as room temperature or maximum 10 degree higher to room temperature is OK.
Conclusion:
If you are using your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air laptop to more then 10 hours per day, then you need to focus on its health also. Without any software we can’t check MacBook health, battery information, CPU health etc. For managing all this and improve your MacBook life you need to use any of the Mac CPU temperature monitoring apps.
If you have any question and want to know more about any software, please write in the comment section below we will help you to choose best CPU temperature monitor software.
Macs are powerful devices, and with the introduction of the custom Apple silicon M1 Macs and MacBooks, it has become more imperative that you manage the background apps and monitor power consumption.
Don’t get us wrong, the M1 SOC is fast and is the fastest of the chips that we’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean that you should leave everything to the computer and not do anything as it will consistently deliver poor results and keep on getting slower over time. However, using a system monitor brings a lot of benefits, and they are:
- In-depth monitoring of apps and processes.
- Maintaining a smooth user experience.
- Helps terminate unresponsive and unwanted tasks and applications.
Are you currently taking full advantage of all the techy help you can get?
If you are not sure, I’m glad you are here. As a Mac geek, I have been testing some system monitoring tools and I’m happy to share my favorites with you.
Quick jump to…
Let’s start with the standard: Activity Monitor
Your Mac comes with a built-in system monitoring application known as Activity Monitor. It is excellent for closing unresponsive applications and seeing real-time CPU, Network, Disk status or Energy usage. So, how do you access the Activity Monitor? – Follow the steps below to get the activity monitor running for you.
- Firstly, Go to your “Applications” folder and then to the “Utility” folder.
- Then double-click on the “Activity Monitor”, which will bring up a window.
- This is the Activity Monitor app, and here you’ll see five tabs and a list of entries that changes every few seconds. The Tabs contain the following information – CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk Usage and Network.
Note: The Activity Monitor shows you real-time usage and power consumption. It also allows you to close and terminate all unresponsive tasks or tasks, hogging up too much performance.
Is the built-in Activity Monitor good enough?
The Activity Monitor is a decent app from Apple and is ideally suited to beginners. However, if you want to have extra control over what you’re doing and the processes running, you would have to opt for the third-party solutions listed below.
The Activity monitor helps you by displaying the main processes and the percentage load on the CPU and GPU. It can also force-quit any unresponsive application and help recover your Mac to a normal running state. However, there are many features and information that it misses or hides due to Apple’s clutter-free and simple design idealogy. Hence, third-party applications are better alternatives for the program.
Therefore, the built-in Activity is popular with beginners and casual users, while professionals use 3rd-party apps with more functionality and readily available data.
Try a better monitor: iStat Menus
Pricing: Free for seven days and then a $9.99 per month Setapp subscription, or you can purchase it for $14.15 and can be upgraded for $11.79 (includes six months of weather data)
iStat Menus is genuinely outstanding and deliver some of the best user experience possible. When it boils down to which app provides a better and robust customizable app experience, then the iStat menu shines the brightest and helps you monitor the system performance of your Mac. It works with recognizing all apps and integrating the charts in the menu bar on top of your Mac to access the numbers quickly. It is also lightweight and runs in the background with zero to no performance hit.
You can get started using the app by downloading and installing the app from the link above. After you’re done installing, you will be greeted with a pop-up window for all the settings and customizations that you can do. However, the main feature of monitoring will help you readily keep track of your Mac’s performance and allow you to see if anything is hindering it or not. Here is the complete list of items that iStat Menus keep tracks of and help monitor:
- Disk Usage
- Memory Consumption and Availability
- CPU and GPU performance
- Battery and Power Information
- Displaying data such as Weather, Network information and Sensor state
How can you use iStat Menus to manage processes?
iStat Menus has a straightforward UI that can help you manage operations and terminate unresponsive tasks or background running apps that hog up performance and memory. In addition, we use it to check the background apps and maintain all the processes that impact the performance. This helps us optimizing and planning our workflow and better improve the overall UI experience.
It also has a comprehensive graph page that helps us monitor the total time spent working and gaming, and this data helps me out by analyzing and taking out time for other day to day stuff. Finally, the weather information panel that we’ll discuss shortly works excellent to help us plan our day and move forward with our day.
You can also do this and enable the settings to make it more productive by:
- Go into the app and look for the CPU and GPU tab on the left-hand side of your screen.
- Click on the tab and now look for ‘Processes’ and clear any unwanted task or process you want to.
Note: You can also visit the other tabs. We recommend you check out the Memory tab to quickly and efficiently manage all the different processes and apps that can limit your performance by staying in memory.
Customization Options
iStat Menus use a menu bar integration method to display all the information. This can lead to problems such as a cluttered menu bar or accessibility concerns. However, you can lay these concerns to rest as iStat Menus is highly customizable. You can choose what to display on the menu bar and what to hide on the menu bar. You also have the option to hide the icons from your menu bar temporarily and customize the update frequency so that the icons aren’t disturbing.
It also allows the app’s accent colours and personalizes the icons according to your liking and preferences. The total amount of customizations it provides is immense, and you can change the menu bar colours, borders, and even the slightest of details in the shade of the drop-down that highlights the graphs and other information. The interface highlights how changing the colours will affect the app and the menu bar, and with this much customization at hand, iStat Menus becomes the go-to option for a distraction-free and clean activity-monitoring app.
Performance Monitoring
As we have already discussed, the CPU and GPU tab helps you manage your processes and activities. Finally, the memory tab enables you to manage RAM consumption to improve performance and responsiveness all around the UI.
How To Monitor Mac Cpu Temperature
However, this is the basic that iStat Menus is capable of. iStat Menus can also display various graphs and infographics of your workload so that you can manage and learn about your usage and ample insight on how your apps behave. The app is also quite a haven for developers and can help them check and stress test their app performance and requirements on the Mac.
Notifications and Weather Information
Finally, iStat Menus also provides many customization options for what notifications you want to receive. The notification feature allows you to have reports every time your Mac hits a specific condition or issue. For example, it helps you by notifying if your Mac heats up, overuses the CPU, or saturates the memory with background apps.
It also features a built-in weather information widget to help you monitor your area’s current and upcoming weather condition. However, some of the weather tool features are locked behind a paid upgrade which is a bummer considering it is handy. The module displays the daily forecast along with the maximum and minimum temperature based on your preferred units. Oh, and if you are a weather buff, you also get to see the dew point, wind’s speed and direction.
Oh, and the cherry on the cake is that the custom notifications settings and preferences also work with the weather module, which means if you are working on your Mac and the weather suddenly turns grey and stormy, a message pops up right away notifying you of the condition.
Pros and Cons of using iStat Menus
Pros
- It is feature-rich and can help you monitor a lot of stuff at once
- It has a menu integration system that displays data directly on every screen
- You can also set custom notifications, and it has a lot of customization settings for personalization
Cons
- The Pro package can get a little pricy
- Weather Information and Notifications can feel a little cluttered
- The design can feel a little dated and doesn’t fit in with the new macOS Big Sur menu icon set
In Short, iStat Menus is the perfect app if you want to monitor all your process activity and keep your device optimized for best performance at all times. In addition, it helps save battery and improves responsiveness across the UI.
Also great: iStatistica Pro for Mac
Pricing: Free – Trial Version with limited features, $5.99 – Full Package
iStatistica Pro is an excellent alternative for iStat Menus, but it lacks the customization options that iStat Menus provide. It also includes a widget and a status bar menu that comes in handly while displaying a lot of information at once. So, if you don’t need the customization settings and don’t mind downloading a plugin for additional features, then, by all means, get iStatistica Pro.
The full version for iStatistica Pro has a lot of features and can help you manage the following:
- A complete System Monitor dashboard
- Bluetooth device battery information
- Sensors and Fans data
- Network activity monitoring
- Remote access through your iPhone
- Widgets and instant notifications
How can you use iStatistica Pro to manage processes?
iStatistica Pro has many monitoring features to help you manage your apps to the fans on your Mac. So, how do you so?
- Well, Firstly, you need to download and install the app
- Secondly, you would be greeted with a homepage that would allow you to access all your data on a single screen
Note: You can access all the device information on a single screen which can be a little clunky, but after a bit of experience, you would easily be able to navigate the entire UI and understand all the information.
App Management
App Management is simple and straightforward, with the main features directly being listed on the app’s home page. Here you can manage all the settings and even kill misbehaving or performance hogging apps running in the foreground or the background. You also get a detailed analysis report for all the performance hits and CPU and Memory utilization. Finally, it has graphs and other information related to battery and temperature that can help you better analyze and monitor your Mac apps. We also enjoy the fact that you can manage all the tasks under the same section, and it proves helpful in killing apps and maintain good performance overall. Oh, and did we mention it also has fan controls and temperature monitoring capabilities for all the CPU cores, GPU and other inbuilt hardware.
Alerts and Notifications
Alert and Notifications are a big part of monitoring and getting crucial information right at your fingertips, and iStatistica Pro has a robust alert management system that allows you to get notifications regarding the CPU utilization limit and memory utilization limit instantly notify you if your device hits that threshold. Finally, you also get a companion app for your iPhone, and it lets you remotely access all the monitoring data right on your phone. It also has webhook commands and additional notification plugins, but it can get a little confusing for beginners, so try that when you get comfortable using the app.
Widgets
Widgets are a big thing for macOS, and iStatistica makes full use of them. It has multiple widgets that go on your home screen and provide you with crucial information regarding app, CPU and memory utilization. It also helps track your storage data and network connectivity with download and upload speeds for the entire time you’re using your device. You can also add additional devices for monitoring, such as your Bluetooth connected Apple Watch and headphones for easier access and battery management on the home screen.
Pros and Cons of using iStatistica Pro
Pros
- Easy and seamless widget integration
- Powerful alerts and notification options
- A clubbed intuitive app management and data monitoring system
Cons
- The initial experience using the app may feel a little clunky
- Most features are locked behind a payment
Other alternatives
MenuBar Stats ($4.99) – MenuBar Stats helps you monitor the performance of your Mac in a clean, sleek and straightforward interface. It has been ‘completely re-written from the ground’ and comes with modules such as CPU, disk, network, Bluetooth, fan, and more. Each of these modules can be accessed front he menu bar and/or the notification center of your Mac OS.
TG Pro ($10) – TG Pro is a diagnostics app that works the best with monitoring temperature and fan data. However, it also has system monitoring capabilities with CPU, GPU, Battery and storage information that helps you maintain your device with ease. Finally, it is the only app on the list that can accurately display all the temperature information for the new M1 Macs, including any older gen models.
XRG for Mac (free) – Talking about open sources, XRG for Mac is a functional system monitor tool that you could try if you do want to monitor your Mac’s performance for free. The UI is complex and needs a lot of time to get used to, and it also looks like something straight out of the 2000s era. This app lets you monitor your CPU and GPU activity, memory usage, machine temperature, battery status, network activity, disk I/O, stock market data, and current weather.
App Tamer ($14.95) – helps you tame the apps that hog your CPU. It’s a lightweight menu bar utility with the ability to detect the average percentage of your processor(s) being used by each app, or access a graphical history or your CPU usage.
Check Cpu Temp Mac
Monity ($4.99) – Monity is an excellent app for those who want infographics to work as a widget. It is available in the ‘Today View’ section of your macOS UI and can oversee various device hardware components. Monity does not have menu bars and displays information straight through the widget without cluttering your menubar workspace. The app comes in fifteen languages and can be purchased from the app store for $4.99.
coconutBattery3 ($12) – coconutBattery has been around the battery monitoring space since 2005 and does a fine job displaying the health of your Mac’s battery. It also comes with a companion app for your iPad and iPhone to track and manage their batteries as well. However, it is strictly a battery-monitoring app and cannot work as a fully functional activity manager.
SMART Utility ($25) – All new Macs come with faster SSDs with high data transfer speeds and fantastic read and write rates, sometimes leading to drive management issues. SMART Utility is built to keep track of the health of all your drives and to diagnose any problem that may arise. It can also get information such as drive temperature, capacity, and health, making it great for Disk Utility software.
MenuMeters (free) – Finally, taking a look at MenuMeters, which looks like a simple Aciitiivty manager application but can get seriously complex and feature-rich with use. It has unique features and customization options and details every activity and process with graphs and memory colours.
FAQs
iStat Menus vs iStatistica Pro?
iStat Menus is a great Activity Monitoring application, and compared to iStatistica Pro can be a lot feature-rich. So, we would recommend you to stick with iStat Menus as it is impressive with what it does and is lightweight enough not to be a problem with the performance. See the detailed comparison here.
Why is my MacBook Pro so hot?
There can be multiple reasons for your MacBook Pro getting so hot, but the primary one is that it’s being stressed with all the performance demands from applications and tasks. So, a quick fix is to use an Activity Monitoring app to identify the most demanding app and terminate it for your device to cool down and regain all the performance is lost.
What should the CPU usage percentage be for my Mac?
There is no set rule for what CPU usage percentage should be good for your Mac, but anything over 80% usage should be a cause for concern, and generally, you should max out the CPU at around 70-80% load and not more.
How to fix kernel_task CPU usage on Big Sur?
Cpu Temperature Monitor For Mac Free Download
kernel_task is a variety of low-level processes that allow your computer to work and is a part of macOS. It won’t generally concern you, but it can sometimes be the biggest culprit of slowing down your Mac with utilizing the CPU to the max. However, you can fix this by restarting your Mac and updating it to the latest software update available.
How to get CPU temperature for the new M1 Macs?
The new M1 Macs aren’t compatible with most apps for temperature monitoring, but TG Pro works perfectly. So, you can download TG Pro from the link above and monitor your M1 Mac without and compatibility issues.
Before you go
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