a native system monitor and fan controller for Apple Silicon Macs. live readings in the menu bar, a full dashboard, and touch bar widgets. free.
mac app store · direct download · website · license
core-monitor reads sensor data straight from the apple smc and standard macos system apis, then shows it where you actually look: the menu bar, a full dashboard, and, on machines that have one, the touch bar. it also controls your fans when you want it to, and stays out of the way when you don't.
it runs locally, needs no account, and is built native for apple silicon rather than wrapped from a web app.
cpu, gpu, memory, battery, thermals, power draw, fan speeds, network, and disk. readings come from the apple smc and system apis, so the numbers match what the hardware actually reports.
if a disk capacity refresh fails, core-monitor keeps the last successful reading and retries on the next sample.
core-monitor can take over fan speeds through a small privileged helper, then hand control back to macos when you turn it off. you can set fixed speeds or build custom curves. the controls are explicit on purpose, since this touches cooling on a machine you care about.
if the smc fan-count reading is unavailable, fan detection checks all candidate fan slots. failed RPM readings do not trigger low-speed alerts; a real 0 RPM reading can still trigger a stall alert when the mac is hot.
manual targets are supervised by the privileged helper while the app stays connected and sends a heartbeat. a lost connection or expired lease triggers an attempt to return the fans to automatic control. reinstall the bundled helper when updating to this version. see runtime behavior and validation for compatibility and hardware-testing limits.
- pick which readings sit in the menu bar and read them at a glance
- open a compact popover for a fuller summary without leaving what you are doing
- put live widgets on the touch bar if your mac has one
the fan menu bar value shows 0 when the highest available reading is 0 RPM, and — when no fan reading is available. settings shortcuts select their requested tab even when the settings window is already open.
core-monitor is free and native. istat menus is paid, tg pro and macs fan control focus mainly on fans, and stats is free but has no fan control. core-monitor covers monitoring and fan control in one app, tuned for apple silicon, at no cost.
- get it from the mac app store
- or grab the latest direct download
- or build from source with xcode
the mac app store build is sandboxed and does not include fan control, since that needs a privileged helper. use the direct download if you want fan control.
no account, no sign in, no ads, and no analytics. monitoring data stays on your mac. live weather is off by default; if you explicitly enable it, core-monitor asks macos for location access and requests weather from apple weatherkit. the developer never receives that data.
- macos 13 or later
- apple silicon is the only supported architecture
- Core-Monitor is roughly 4mb for the .dmg installer and about 5mb for the app.zip installer.
gpl-3.0, see LICENSE.