Buy $5

System monitor for macOS

The Activity Monitor
for the AI era.

Cortex turns a thousand processes into the sixty apps you actually run, remembers the last 30 days, and shows what your Neural Engine and local models are doing. Everything stays on your Mac.

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One-time purchase · macOS 15 or later · Built for Apple Silicon

The Cortex overview window: apps ranked by CPU, memory and energy use, with live charts for CPU, memory, GPU and the Neural Engine.The Cortex overview window: apps ranked by CPU, memory and energy use, with live charts for CPU, memory, GPU and the Neural Engine.

Illustration Metric tiles are decorative, not real data.

Apps, not processes

See sixty apps, not a thousand processes.

Activity Monitor lists what the system sees: helpers, renderers, agents and daemons. Cortex counts each one under the app it belongs to, so a slow Mac has a name you recognise. Expand any app when you want the detail.

IllustrationLeft: a process list as Activity Monitor shows it. Right: the same work grouped into apps by Cortex.

Built for Apple Silicon AI

Goes further on the hardware that runs your models.

Neural Engine power, local model memory, and an honest answer to "can I run this?". No other system monitor covers this much of Apple Silicon.

Apple Silicon

Neural Engine

See Neural Engine power and estimated load next to CPU, GPU and DRAM, and which apps hold Neural Engine memory.

  • CPU
  • GPU
  • Neural Engine
  • DRAM
Illustration Stacked power by component. Neural Engine load is an estimate.
The Cortex Neural Engine screen with a stacked power chart for CPU, GPU, Neural Engine and DRAM.The Cortex Neural Engine screen with a stacked power chart for CPU, GPU, Neural Engine and DRAM.
Local AI

Local AI workloads

Cortex detects Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp server, ComfyUI and MLX or PyTorch processes, and shows the models they have loaded.

The Cortex Local AI screen listing Ollama with two loaded models, their memory and power use.The Cortex Local AI screen listing Ollama with two loaded models, their memory and power use.
Can I run this model?

Model Fit Advisor

Pick the parameters, quantization and context length. Cortex compares the model with your free unified memory and the GPU memory limit.

Can I run this model?Llama 70B · 4-bit · 8K context
Needs42 GB
Free now21 GB

Almost fitsClose Chrome to free 21 GB

Illustration Example of an advisor result.
On-device assistant

Ask Cortex

Ask "Why is my Mac slow?" or "What drained my battery?" and get an answer from your own data, on your Mac.

Illustration Needs macOS 26 and Apple Intelligence. Otherwise a built-in assistant answers.

Ask Cortex answering the question "Why is my Mac slow?" with the apps responsible.Ask Cortex answering the question "Why is my Mac slow?" with the apps responsible.

See every feature

Everything else

The rest of what your Mac is doing.

See every feature

Privacy

What happens on your Mac stays on your Mac.

Cortex sees everything your Mac does, so it keeps all of it local. No account. No analytics. No telemetry. Ask Cortex runs on device.

  • No account
  • No analytics
  • No telemetry
  • On-device AI

Read the privacy policy

The only two requests Cortex makes

  1. 1Update checkLooks for a new version of Cortex.
  2. 2License checkSends your license key, your Mac’s name and an anonymous device ID.

Everything else, including 30 days of history and every Ask Cortex answer, stays on your Mac.

Menu bar

Pick an icon, a number, a mini graph or stacked metrics. When your Mac is under strain the icon turns into a warning. Click it for every metric and the busiest apps.

Illustration Menu bar styles
  • Icon
  • Number
  • Mini graph
  • Stacked metrics
  • Under strain
Illustration macOS 26 menu bar with Cortex open. Figures are examples, not real data.

Pricing

Pay once. Keep it.

No subscription and no trial. Buy it, activate it, and it keeps working, even offline.

Pricing and licensing
CortexOne-time purchase
Licenses

$5

One license, one Mac. No subscription, no trial.

$10

2 licenses for 2 Macs · $5 each

$25

5 licenses for 5 Macs · $5 each

$50

10 licenses for 10 Macs · $5 each

$100

20 licenses for 20 Macs · $5 each

Buy 1 license for $5Buy 2 licenses for $10Buy 5 licenses for $25Buy 10 licenses for $50Buy 20 licenses for $100
Download

Payment by Creem. License keys arrive by email.
macOS 15 Sequoia or later · Apple Silicon or Intel

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Read the full FAQ

Is Cortex on the Mac App Store?

No. Cortex needs to read other apps’ processes, which the App Store sandbox does not allow. It is distributed directly, signed and notarized by Apple.

Does it work on Intel Macs?

Yes. Cortex is built for Apple Silicon, and Intel Macs are supported with fewer metrics: there is no Neural Engine and no power data. It needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later.

How much does it cost?

$5, once. There is no subscription and no trial. Every future update is included, for life. See the update policy.

Can I buy Cortex for more than one Mac?

Yes. Pick 1, 2, 5, 10 or 20 licenses on the pricing card. Each license is $5 and activates Cortex on one Mac at a time, so 5 licenses cover 5 Macs. You pay once, as with a single license.

How do I move my license to a new Mac?

One license covers one Mac at a time. On the old Mac, open Cortex › Settings › License and choose Deactivate This Mac. Then enter your key on the new Mac.

If you enter the key on a second Mac first, Cortex tells you which Mac has it and when that Mac was last used.

Is my data uploaded?

No. Your metrics, history and Ask Cortex conversations stay on your Mac. Cortex makes only two kinds of network request: the update check and the license check. There is no telemetry.

Know what your Mac is doing.

Cortex, for $5. Once.

Buy $5Download

macOS 15 Sequoia or later · Apple Silicon or Intel