Monitoring your Mac’s CPU temperature is crucial for diagnosing overheating issues, thermal throttling, or excessive fan noise. While there are numerous third-party applications available for this task (such as iStat Menus or Macs Fan Control), many users prefer not to install additional software.
Fortunately, macOS provides built-in tools that allow you to check your CPU temperature directly from the Terminal. The method you use depends entirely on whether your Mac uses an Intel processor or Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3 chips).
How to Check CPU Temperature on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3)
Apple Silicon Macs completely changed the internal hardware architecture, meaning old Intel-based commands no longer work. For M-series chips, Apple introduced a built-in diagnostic tool called powermetrics.
The powermetrics tool requires root privileges and outputs a massive amount of data regarding power consumption, frequency, and thermals. We can use the grep command to filter only the temperature readings.
- Open the Terminal application (found in Applications > Utilities, or by searching in Spotlight).
- Type the following command exactly as written and press Return:
sudo powermetrics --samplers smc |grep -i "CPU die temperature"
- Enter your Mac’s administrator password. (Note: You will not see the characters as you type them).
The Terminal will output the current temperature of the CPU die in Celsius. Because powermetrics runs continuously, the temperature will update every few seconds. To stop the command, press Control + C.
How to Check CPU Temperature on Intel Macs
If you are using an older Mac with an Intel processor, the powermetrics command functions differently and does not output SMC temperature readings in the same way. Instead, you can use a built-in tool called sysctl to read the CPU temperature, although it requires a specific Ruby script or external binary to translate the SMC values easily.
The most reliable built-in method for Intel Macs without installing third-party apps is to use the osx-cpu-temp binary if you have Homebrew installed, or to rely on the standard macOS thermal warning logs:
log show --predicate "eventMessage contains 'temperature'" --last 1h
This command queries the unified system log for any thermal events or temperature warnings recorded in the last hour. If your Intel Mac is overheating, the system will log thermal pressure warnings here.
Alternative: Using Activity Monitor
While Activity Monitor cannot show exact CPU temperatures, it is the best native tool for identifying why your Mac is running hot.
- Open Activity Monitor from Applications > Utilities.
- Click on the CPU tab at the top.
- Click the % CPU column header to sort processes by the highest usage.
If a process is consistently using over 80-100% of your CPU, it is likely the cause of your high temperatures. You can highlight the rogue process and click the “X” button at the top of the window to force quit it, which should immediately lower your CPU temperature.