Task Manager on Mac: How to Use Activity Monitor and Force Quit Apps

If you’re coming from Windows and looking for Task Manager on a Mac, the app you want is Activity Monitor. Apple lists it as the Mac counterpart to Task Manager: it shows which apps and processes are running and how much CPU, memory, energy, disk and network each one uses. If an app is frozen right now, press Option + Command + Esc to open the Force Quit window, select the app and click Force Quit.

The rest of this guide shows how to open Activity Monitor, what each tab tells you, and how to close a process without causing new problems.

What is the Mac version of Task Manager?

Activity Monitor is a built-in Mac app, so there’s nothing to download. Apple describes it as a way to see how your Mac is using its resources, and to find and force quit apps or processes that are slow or not responding.

Here’s how the common Windows habits map to the Mac:

What you want to do	On Windows	On a Mac
See running apps and resource use	Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc)	Activity Monitor
Close a frozen app	Task Manager	Option + Command + Esc, then Force Quit
Switch between open apps	Alt + Tab	Command + Tab
Quit the current app	Varies by app	Command + Q

How to open Activity Monitor

There’s no single built-in key combination that opens Activity Monitor, but it only takes a few seconds with Spotlight.

Open it with Spotlight

1. Press Command + Space bar to show the Spotlight search field.
2. Type Activity Monitor.
3. Press Return to open it.

Open it from Finder

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Go to Applications, then open the Utilities folder.
3. Double-click Activity Monitor.

Keep it in the Dock

If you check Activity Monitor often, keep it one click away:

1. Open Activity Monitor using either method above.
2. Control-click its icon in the Dock.
3. Choose Options > Keep in Dock.

Tip: Activity Monitor’s Dock icon can show a live graph instead of the normal icon. Choose View > Dock Icon in Activity Monitor and pick the CPU, disk or network option you want.

Force quit a frozen app (the Mac’s Ctrl+Alt+Delete)

When an app stops responding, you don’t need Activity Monitor at all. Apple’s quickest method:

1. Press Option + Command + Esc together. On a Mac with a Touch Bar, Esc is on the left side of the Touch Bar.
2. In the Force Quit window, select the app that isn’t responding.
3. Click Force Quit.

You can also open the same window by choosing Force Quit from the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen.

If Finder is the app that’s stuck, select it in the Force Quit window and click Relaunch instead.

Important: Force quitting closes the app immediately, so anything you haven’t saved in that app can be lost. If the app still responds a little, try saving your work or using Command + Q first.

What each Activity Monitor tab shows

Activity Monitor has a row of tabs across the top. Click one to change which numbers you see for each process.

Tab	What it tells you	When to look here
CPU	How much processor time each process uses, plus System, User and Idle percentages at the bottom	The Mac feels slow or the fans run loudly
Memory	How much RAM each process uses, plus a Memory Pressure graph	Apps take a long time to switch or reopen
Energy	Energy Impact per app, and battery details on Mac laptops	The battery drains faster than usual
Disk	How often the Mac reads and writes to disk, and how much data is moved	The startup disk seems busy all the time
Network	Packets and data sent and received	You suspect something is uploading or downloading in the background

Apple’s guide also covers GPU and Cache views, but the five tabs above answer most everyday questions.

CPU

At the bottom of the CPU tab, Apple shows three percentages:

• System: CPU capacity used by processes that belong to macOS.
• User: CPU capacity used by apps you opened and the processes they started.
• Idle: CPU capacity that isn’t being used.

To find the app using the most processor time, click the CPU percentage column heading to sort the list. Click the arrow in the selected heading to reverse the order. The CPU tab also shows how many processes and threads are open, at the bottom of the window.

Memory

The Memory tab lists how much RAM each process uses. At the bottom, you’ll see Physical Memory (the RAM installed), Memory Used, App Memory, Wired Memory, Compressed, Cached Files and Swap Used.

The most useful item is the Memory Pressure graph. Apple explains the colors this way:

• Green: your Mac is using its RAM efficiently.
• Yellow: your Mac might eventually need more RAM.
• Red: your Mac needs more RAM.

A lot of “used” memory isn’t a problem by itself. Apple notes that macOS works best when it actively manages all of the available memory, so judge by the pressure color, not by how much memory looks free.

Energy

The Energy Impact column is a relative measure of how much power each app uses right now (lower is better). On Mac laptops you’ll also see a 12 hr Power column, battery charge, time remaining and a chart of the battery level over the last 12 hours. The Preventing Sleep column shows whether an app is keeping your Mac awake.

Disk and Network

The Disk tab shows how many times the Mac reads and writes data and how much data moves. The Network tab shows packets and data received and sent, with a graph you can switch between packets and data using the menu above it.

How to end a process safely in Activity Monitor

Use Activity Monitor when you need to close something that doesn’t appear in the Force Quit window, such as a background process.

1. Open Activity Monitor.
2. Find the process. Type its name in the search field at the top right, or click a column heading to sort the list. Processes that aren’t responding say (Not Responding) and appear in red.
3. Select the process.
4. Click the Stop button in the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
5. Choose Quit first. Apple says this works like choosing File > Quit in the app: the process closes when it’s safe to do so.
6. If Quit doesn’t work, repeat the steps and choose Force Quit.

Important: Force Quit stops a process immediately. Open files can lose unsaved changes, and other apps or processes that depend on it may have problems. Only force quit processes you recognize. To see which processes depend on each other, choose View > All Processes, Hierarchically.

If you don’t own a process, macOS may ask for an administrator name and password before it lets you quit it. That’s a sign to slow down and make sure you really want to stop it.

Handy Activity Monitor tricks

• Filter the list: The View menu can show All Processes, My Processes, System Processes, Active Processes, Windowed Processes (usually apps) and more.
• Choose your columns: Choose View > Columns to add or hide columns.
• Inspect a process: Double-click a process, or select it and click the Info button, to see more details.
• Watch CPU over time: Choose Window > CPU History for a running view of recent processor activity.
• Refresh rate: Activity Monitor updates every 5 seconds by default, and you can change how often it refreshes.

If you also use a Windows PC, our list of useful computer tricks covers the Windows Task Manager shortcut and other time-savers, and the Windows emoji keyboard shortcut guide includes the Mac equivalent for emoji.

If it still doesn’t work

If an app won’t quit even with Force Quit, Apple recommends restarting from the Apple menu. If the Mac won’t restart, press and hold the power button for up to 10 seconds until it turns off, then press it again to turn the Mac back on.

Important: Holding the power button turns the Mac off without saving anything. Use it only when the normal restart doesn’t respond.

If Activity Monitor keeps showing yellow or red memory pressure during your normal work, your Mac may simply need more RAM. Apple’s guide shows how to check whether your model’s memory can be upgraded: hold Option, open the Apple menu, choose System Information, click Memory under Hardware, and look for Upgradeable Memory. If that pane isn’t there, the memory can’t be upgraded.

For a slow computer in general, the checks in why is my computer so slow follow the same logic: find what’s using the CPU, memory or disk before changing anything. If hardware might be failing, our computer repair tips explain when it’s time to book a repair instead. You can find more guides like this one in Tech Tips.