Oliver Haslam·

How To Check CPU Model In Mac Using Terminal In macOS

If you’re a Mac user who wants to check exactly what CPU your computer has, you can find out one of a few different ways.

The easiest and perhaps quickest ways is to use an app that’s installed on all Macs, and it’s easier to use than you might think. We are, of course, talking about the Terminal.

You can find Terminal in Applications > Utilities folder on each and every Mac that Apple sells. And here’s how to use it to check which CPU your machine has.

  1. Open the Terminal app from Applications > Utilities.
  2. Copy and paste the following, excluding the quotes: “sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string” Press RETURN when done.

Terminal will run the command and return a value. That value is the make, model, and speed of the processor that is running inside your Mac. For example: “Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5257U CPU @ 2.70GHz”

And that’s all there is to it. You can close Terminal and you’re all done.

Regardless of why you need to know the specific model of processor that is inside your Mac, finding out is super easy and you already have everything you need installed on your computer. You can select and copy the output from Terminal if it’s required, too.

Terminal can do all manner of things if you have the time and patience to learn about it. It might look scary, but it really needn’t be.

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