User level: Level 1 (4 points)MacOs: why does the menu bar at top left of screen show a series of % usage of the CPU cores, as in Activity monitor? (Sequoia 15.7, Macbook Pro M4Pro)
Posted on Sep 30, 2026 11:19 PM
User level: Level 10 (123,805 points)Oct 1, 2026 4:24 AM in response to dv999
What you are seeing is not CPU display that Activity Monitor puts in the macOS menu bar.
Apple documents CPU information in Activity Monitor and as a live graph in the Dock, but not individual CPU-core percentages in the menu bar. Apple: Activity Monitor User Guide
The percentages are being displayed by another menu-bar item.
Try clicking them first.
The menu that appears may identify the application and give you an option to hide or disable the display.
If that does not identify it, go to System Settings >> General >> Login Items & Extensions and look through the applications that are set to start automatically. Apple: Login Items & Extensions
Once you identify the application, you can usually turn off its menu-bar display in that application’s settings or prevent it from launching at login.
If you post a screenshot showing the percentages and the surrounding menu-bar area, I can help identify what is displaying them and how to turn it off.
Should the above provide a useful solution
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Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256368311