There could be numerous reasons behind a computer running slow but the most common is a lack of RAM (memory) caused by too many programs running simultaneously, and you may wonder how much RAM do i have and how to check the RAM usage.
This note shows how to check the total amount of RAM and its usage on Windows, Linux and macOS from GUI and from a command line (terminal).
How to Check How Much RAM Do I Have
How to Check RAM on Windows
To check how much RAM do i have on Windows and to see the RAM usage, press the ⊞ Win + R to launch the “Run” dialog, execute the taskmgr to start the “Task Manager”, open the “Performance” tab and click on “Memory”:
To check how much RAM do i have on Windows from the command line, press the ⊞ Win + R to launch the “Run” dialog, execute the cmd or powershell to start the Windows command prompt (CMD) or PowerShell correspondingly, and then execute the following command:
C:\> systeminfo | find "Total Physical Memory"
- sample output -
Total Physical Memory: 8,062 MB
To check RAM usage on Windows from the command line:
C:\> systeminfo | find "Available Physical Memory"
- sample output -
Available Physical Memory: 2,560 MB
How to Check RAM on Linux
To check how much RAM do i have on Linux and to see the RAM usage, start the terminal by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + T and execute:
$ free -h
- sample output -
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3,7Gi 1,7Gi 1,1Gi 351Mi 937Mi 1,4Gi
Swap: 979Mi 467Mi 512Mi
How to Check RAM on Mac
To check how much RAM do i have on Mac and to see the RAM usage, press the ⌘ Cmd + Space to open a spotlight search field, search for the “Activity Monitor” and go to the “Memory” tab.
To check memory on Mac from a terminal, press the ⌘ Cmd + Space to open a spotlight search field, type in “Terminal” and hit the Enter. This will open the terminal in which you can run the following command to check RAM on Mac:
$ system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Memory:"
- sample output -
Memory: 16 GB
Unfortunately there is no a Linux free command equivalent on Mac, but you can check the RAM usage on Mac from a terminal, using the top command:
$ top