How to check storage on a Mac: 4 ways

How do I check storage in System Settings?

Storage in System Settings shows used and available space, and what’s using it.

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click General in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
2. Click Storage. Wait a moment while macOS adds up each category.
3. Read the line at the top: used space of the disk’s capacity. The space that isn’t used is available.
4. Move the pointer over a color in the bar to see how much space that category uses. Light gray is free space.

To see every volume, Apple’s steps add one more click: All Volumes. If you see more than one disk there, your internal disk has more than one volume, and they share its space (more on that below).

Where is storage in About This Mac?

On macOS Ventura and later, storage moved from About This Mac to System Settings. A shortcut: choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General, then click About. The Storage row there has a Storage Settings button, which opens Storage. On earlier versions of macOS, choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click Storage.

How do I check disk space in Finder?

Finder shows any disk’s space, including external drives, without opening System Settings.

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Select the disk in the Locations section of the sidebar, such as Macintosh HD.
3. Choose File > Get Info, or press Command-I.
4. In the window that opens, click the arrow next to General if it’s closed. It shows how much space is available on the disk.

For a quick look while you work, choose View > Show Status Bar. The bar at the bottom of the window shows how many items are in that folder and how much space is available on its disk.

How do I check storage in Disk Utility?

Disk Utility shows each disk, container and volume, with its details.

1. Open Disk Utility. Search for it with Spotlight, or find it in Applications > Utilities.
2. Choose View > Show All Devices.
3. Select a disk, container or volume in the sidebar. Its details appear on the right.
4. Click the Info button in the toolbar for more.

Apple says this can include the total capacity, the format, where the volume is mounted, and the amount of space available, which can include both free space and purgeable space.

Which way should I use?

Why do the numbers differ between tools?

Different tools can show different numbers for the same disk, and all of them can be right.

• Available isn’t the same as free. Apple explains that free space is physically open space on the disk, while available space includes free space and purgeable disk caches. So disk space might be both available and used at the same time.
• Purgeable space comes and goes. Purgeable space is space macOS can free up when needed by removing files, such as caches. You can’t remove purgeable files yourself; macOS removes them as space is needed.
• Volumes share one pool. On the Apple File System (APFS), volumes on a disk share its space. A container’s free space can go to any volume that needs it, so a single volume’s “used” can look different from the whole disk’s.
• The box uses round numbers. Drive makers count 1 TB as 1 trillion bytes, and Apple notes that the drive’s formatting uses some of that space. That’s one reason a 1 TB Mac shows less than 1,000 GB.

When numbers disagree, use Storage in System Settings for what’s using the space, and Disk Utility for the disk’s capacity and what’s available.

How much storage do I have?

Your Mac’s total storage is the capacity in Storage, Get Info or Disk Utility. On the Mac in these pictures, sold as 1 TB, Macintosh HD has 994.66 GB, with 905.14 GB used and 89.52 GB available. To find out whether that’s enough free space, see How much free space should a Mac have?

Questions people also ask

Why do Finder and Storage show different free space?

Often because of purgeable space. Available space includes free space and purgeable disk caches, which macOS can clear when it needs the room.

How do I check an external drive’s storage?

Select the drive under Locations in Finder and choose File > Get Info, or select it in Disk Utility. Both show how much space is available on it.

What is purgeable space on a Mac?

Space macOS can free up when needed by removing files it doesn’t need, such as caches. You can’t delete purgeable files yourself; macOS removes them as space is needed.

Why is my storage almost full?

Storage in System Settings lists what’s using it, biggest first. How to free up space on a Mac ranks every way to get it back.