Features

Features

Everything NetworkMonitor does, and where to find it.

The menu bar readout

Two lines, always visible: ↓ download in green over ↑ upload in light grey, in MB/s or Mbps (Settings › General › Show speeds in). Mbps matches how your line is sold; MB/s matches the data totals. Amounts of data are always in MB and GB, the way data plans are sold. Pick other colours under Settings › General › Menu bar colors.

The readout keeps a fixed width, so nothing beside it in the menu bar jumps around as the numbers change. It updates up to twice a second, less often on battery and in Low Power Mode (see battery). While a speed test runs, the readout shows it in cyan, or in another pair of colours if yours come close to cyan, so a test never looks like the live rates.

• Click it for the popover.
• Right-click (or Control-click) it for Test Internet Speed, the last result, Block Everything (#198), Connections… (⌘K), Usage History… (⌘Y), Settings… (⌘,), Check for Updates…, Uninstall NetworkMonitor… and Quit.

The popover

• Total: what this connection has used since you joined it, or since midnight, in one combined figure. An orange METERED badge appears beside it on a hotspot.
• The apps behind it, biggest first, each with a bar for its share. The list re-sorts live as apps overtake each other, and a dot marks apps moving data right now.
• Helpers fold into their app: Chrome's dozen helper processes are one Google Chrome row.
• Commands break out beneath the app that started them. Click iTerm2 or VS Code to see the node, git or curl it launched, each with its own figure. More than four become Other (n).
• System: macOS's own daemons collapse into one row at the bottom. Open it when you're curious.
• Got through: on a hotspot with Hotspot mode on, one line under the total says if an update downloaded anyway.
• Per-app figures paused: if macOS's nettop can't be started, a grey line says so while NetworkMonitor keeps retrying. The total keeps counting regardless.
• Header buttons: the gauge runs a speed test, the globe opens Connections, the chart opens Usage History, and the gear opens Settings.

The list holds eight rows and part of a ninth, so a cut-off row tells you there's more. Esc or a click elsewhere closes it.

A total per connection

Join a different Wi-Fi network or hotspot and the total starts from zero, so what you see is what this connection has used. Open your hotspot somewhere new and you know exactly what each app spent on it.

• A dropout and a reconnect to the same network picks up where it left off.
• It resets at midnight too, for a connection you never leave.
• It survives restarts, and a relaunch on the same network carries on.
• Reset Now (Settings › General) starts the current network's total over.
• Counting since (Settings › General) shows when the current total began.

Networks are told apart by their router's hardware address, which needs no permission, and named after their Wi-Fi network. macOS shares the name only with Location permission, which the app asks for once; refused, a network is named like Wi-Fi · 3f2a.

Totals from earlier networks and days go to Usage History.

Internet only

Mirroring to an Apple TV, Time Machine to a NAS, a Plex stream from your own server: these cross your Wi-Fi but cost no internet data, so they're never counted. An app that only talked to your own network doesn't appear at all. See accuracy.

Usage History

Every hour, per app and per network, for as long as you choose. Look back by day, week, month or year; see each visit to a network as a session; narrow everything to one app, one network or every hotspot at once; export it as CSV. See Usage History.

Connections

Which companies your apps send data to, from which apps, in which countries, and to which servers: grouped by company, app or country, narrowed by clicking, searched, read hour by hour on a timeline, and shaded on a world map that pulses to where your apps reach right now. Nothing is looked up online. Block a company, app, country, site or server, or have it ask the first time an app connects, and block ads, trackers and malware in every app with one switch. See Connections.

Speed test

One click runs a fresh test with the tool built into macOS: download, then upload, then ping, jitter, and ping under load, in Mbps or MB/s. If another app was competing for the line, the result names it. On a hotspot it asks first. See Speed test.

Hotspot mode

One switch stops your apps updating while you're on a mobile hotspot, puts the connection in Low Data Mode, and tells you which apps it can't stop. See Hotspot mode.

Settings

One window with a pane for each area. It's titled and sized after the pane, up to the height of the screen, where the pane scrolls instead. It reopens on the pane you used last. What a row means is behind an ⓘ beside it, which appears when you point at the row (#185, #189).

Pane	What's in it
General	Start at login · Show speeds in MB/s or Mbps · Wi-Fi names, until they're on · Menu bar colors: Download, Upload, the speed test's colours, Use Default Colors · Popover totals: Counting since, Sampling, Reset Now
Speed Test	Run a test right there · Show the test in the popover as a Card or Compact
History	Usage History
Connections	What it is, and Open Connections… · Website names, Turn On… while they're off · Let apps connect, every rule you've made, Export… and Import… · Ads and trackers: Block ads and trackers, each list, Blocked today, Update them weekly · Opens with List, Both or Map · Where the names come from, and Update them monthly
Hotspot	Stop apps updating on hotspots · what it decided about the connection you're on · Paused on a hotspot, each app with its own switch and how behind an ⓘ · Can't be paused, each with why behind an ⓘ · Low Data Mode · what got through
About	Version · website, release notes and source · Check for updates automatically, Check Now · Uninstall…

While Settings is open, NetworkMonitor has a Dock icon and a menu, so ⌘W, ⌘, and ⌘Y work and ⌘-Tab can find it. It goes back to living in the menu bar when you close it.

With Settings open behind another app, a click on the menu bar item shows only the popover, and Settings stays behind. ⌘-Tab or the Dock icon shows Settings on its own.

Staying out of the way

• No Dock icon, no app switcher entry, no window to manage. Just the menu bar.
• Starts at login by default, once. Turn it off in Settings › General and it stays off.
• Quit stays quit. Quitting ends it for the session without turning off Start at login, and turning that off doesn't quit the running app.
• Works with the menu bar set to hide automatically: the popover stays open while the bar hides, and Settings stays in front.