46

How can I get CPU count and total RAM from the OS X command line?

3 Answers 3

8
scorp@antani-mac:~$ hwprefs cpu_count
2
scorp@antani-mac:~$ hwprefs memory_size
4.00 GB
5
  • 16
    hwprefs doesn't seem to be part of the default OS X install (I think it's in Xcode, or maybe the CHUD tools). Feb 16, 2010 at 4:50
  • 11
    hwprefs: command not found on Mac Os x Lion
    – aleroot
    Nov 6, 2011 at 10:20
  • 2
    not on Sierra either
    – JDS
    Nov 30, 2016 at 20:11
  • 2
    Confirmed, not in Sierra. Jul 6, 2017 at 20:36
  • and not on High Sierra too Apr 7, 2018 at 8:37
87

You can get this from the system_profiler tool:

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "  Memory:"
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Cores:
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Processors:

or, if you want to go low-level, use sysctl:

sysctl hw.memsize
sysctl hw.ncpu

Or to capture the values in a script (credit: @bleater):

mem_size=$(sysctl -n hw.memsize)
cpus_virtual=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

btw, there are a bunch of other interesting things you can get from sysctl. Try:

sysctl -a | grep cpu

to see a few of them

6
  • +1: The sysctl method works on Mountain Lion. Feb 28, 2013 at 16:44
  • 3
    To capture the output of sysctl in a script, use the -n option, e.g. sh/bash script: CPUS_VIRTUAL=`sysctl -n hw.ncpu`
    – bleater
    Oct 8, 2013 at 2:51
  • +1: systemctl works best on 10.11.x Apr 20, 2016 at 5:16
  • 4
    Fun fact: sysctl is available from the terminal in recovery mode, while many other tools are not (a coworker needed to know how much ram was in a laptop that is locked with file vault)
    – kbyrd
    Sep 16, 2019 at 15:27
  • 1
    Great answer. Sidenote: I definitely LOL'd when I added the -h flag to the sysctl command expecting to give me "human‑readable" output. It simply added commas… lol Which I guess works fine! I just expected KB, MB, GB, etc. to show up. Then again, it should probably be GB in the vast majority of cases… The trouble comes when counting digits to learn the order of magnitude of GBs you have I guess.
    – aaiezza
    Mar 19, 2020 at 15:57
29

The following works in OS X Lion:

$ /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

Hardware:

    Hardware Overview:

      Model Name: iMac
      Model Identifier: iMac7,1
      Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
      Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
      Number of Processors: 1
      Total Number of Cores: 2
      L2 Cache: 4 MB
      Memory: 4 GB
      Bus Speed: 800 MHz
4
  • This was the most useful one for me since I got everything I was looking for from one command, and works on the recovery terminal for Yosemite (10.10).
    – Aaron R.
    Nov 24, 2014 at 17:01
  • Very nice! This is the answer.
    – atomkirk
    Feb 28, 2017 at 14:21
  • Note that /usr/sbin/ is usually in $PATH. May 13, 2019 at 17:57
  • This still works as of Catalina, and it's wicked fast, unlike some other options.
    – Eric
    Aug 13, 2020 at 0:34

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