Guides
macOS has no built-in CPU temperature display. Here are the Terminal commands that show throttling, the free and paid apps that read the sensors, and how to read the numbers on M1, M2, M3 and M4 Macs.
Typical idle, everyday and full-load CPU temperatures for Apple Silicon MacBooks, what thermal pressure means, when a hot Mac is actually a problem, and how to cool it down.
Why a MacBook gets hot or its fans get loud, how to find the real cause in two minutes with Activity Monitor and Terminal, and what fixes each one, from Spotlight indexing to scaled displays and blocked vents.
Which Macs have fans, how to read fan speed in Terminal or a menu bar app, what RPM is normal on MacBook Pro and Mac mini, why the fans stay at 0 rpm most of the time, and what fan control tools can and cannot do.
Why 'Memory Used' is the wrong number to watch on a Mac, what the memory pressure graph in Activity Monitor actually measures, what App, Wired, Compressed, Cached and Swap mean, and when you really need more RAM.
An honest comparison of the main Mac menu bar monitors in 2026: price, what each shows, temperature and fan support, fan control, reports, and which one fits which kind of user. Written by the makers of ThermPort, with that bias stated up front.