Official documentation
View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac
Apple Support, n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- Apple's Activity Monitor guide describes the Energy pane on a Mac, which shows the energy use of each app and of the whole computer. It defines Energy Impact as a relative measure rather than a power figure.
- How much weight it carries
- Official Apple documentation. It does not give units or a measurement method for Energy Impact, and column names differ between macOS versions, so treat the figure as a ranking between apps.
Facts taken from this source
- Apple describes the Energy Impact column in Activity Monitor on a Mac as a relative measure of an app's current energy use, where lower is better, rather than an absolute power figure.
“A relative measure of the current energy consumption of the app (lower is better).” (Energy Impact entry in the Activity Monitor column list)