What macOS utility displays real‑time CPU and memory usage?

The macOS utility that displays real-time CPU and memory usage is Activity Monitor.

Activity Monitor is built into macOS and lists running applications, background processes, and the system resources they consume. Its CPU view shows processor use, while the Memory view reports each process’s memory footprint and the system’s overall memory pressure. Users can sort processes to identify resource-heavy software.

The utility is more than a performance dashboard: it can also show energy, disk, and network activity, and it allows users to quit or force-quit unresponsive processes. It first appeared in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, combining functions previously associated with Process Viewer and CPU Monitor.

A common mix-up is Console, which displays system logs and diagnostic messages. Disk Utility manages storage devices and volumes, while System Information describes installed hardware and software rather than continuously monitoring resource consumption.