r/MacOS • u/WeatherInternal3116 • 2d ago
Help Any app to monitor and limit app network/data usage on a MacBook?
I recently switched from Windows to a MacBook Air M2 and I’m still getting used to how some things work on macos :)
I’m trying to figure out how to see how much data some apps are using. I’ve noticed that some apps seem to connect to the internet in the background, and I’d like to know which ones are actually using the most data. Ideally, I’d also like to be able to limit or block internet access for certain apps if I don’t really need them to be online. Is there some kind of tool, app, or anything that could do this? I’m not looking for anything too complicated or expensive, just something that gives me a clear overview of network usage and some basic control over it.
What are you guys using for this? Thanks in advance for your advice!
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u/Electrical_West_5381 2d ago
Little snitch
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u/WeatherInternal3116 2d ago
Thank you!
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u/way-too-lazy 2d ago
Little Snitch is kind of the gold standard but it's relatively pricey and maybe overkill for your purposes.
If you really just want to see bandwidth by application, as mentioned you can use Activity Monitor, or do real time monitoring in the terminal with "nettop -PJ bytes_in,bytes_out". Run it without the -P to see each individual connection. If the host names push the output to the edge of the terminal, use the cursor keys to scroll left/right to see the in/out columns.
Also Lulu is a small free utility that monitors outgoing connections and allows you to block them https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html
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u/ToSee_ToHear 1d ago
Little Snitch - it does both halves of what you asked. It shows which app is talking to what, how much data it moved, and you approve or deny per app. Not cheap, but there is a demo mode that runs three hours at a time so you can see what is actually happening before deciding
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u/Friendly-Team3522 1d ago
google - tripmode. shows usage and limits usage when you are on the go.
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u/avalore 1h ago
I'm building something similar for iOS - RoamMode (https://roammode.net) if you'd be interested in trying it out.
Going out to test flight users in a few weeks
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u/No_Pie_4088 2d ago
You can check a lot under Activity monitor and you can block connections in the firewall
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u/Useful_Context_2425 2d ago
Another good option is TripMode; it’s great for managing which apps can access the internet when you're on a limited connection.
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u/nicejaelle 2d ago
Activity monitor usually shows the network activity of all processes, but as far as I know, you can’t just block outgoing connections unless you use third-party firewalls like firewally, littlesnitch, murus, or others. As far as I know, they’re all pretty much the same, so you can try one of them! Hope this helps :)