How to Check How Much Storage Your Mac Has Left

Running low on storage can slow your Mac down. Here's how to check what's using space and how to free some up.

3 min read · 5 steps · Checked March 2026

1. Step 1. Check how much storage you have left

   Click the Apple logo in the top left corner of your screen. Click "About This Mac." Then click "Storage" (on older Macs) or "More Info" and then "Storage Settings" (on newer Macs). You will see a color-coded bar that shows how your storage is being used — different colors represent apps, photos, documents, system files, and free space.

   Quick Tip

   If the "available" (free) space is very small, your Mac may start running slowly. Try to keep at least 10 to 20 percent of your storage free.

2. Step 2. Use built-in tools to free up space

   In the Storage overview, click "Manage." Your Mac will show recommendations to help you free up space. Options like "Store in iCloud" move older files to Apple's online storage so they do not take up room on your Mac. You can still open them anytime. But they will need to download first. "Optimize Storage" removes movies and shows you have already watched.

3. Step 3. Find and delete large files

   Open Finder (the blue and white smiley face icon in your Dock). Press Cmd+F to start a search. Click the dropdown that says "Kind" and change it to "File Size." Set the next dropdown to "is greater than" and type 100. Change the unit to "MB." This will show you all files on your Mac that are larger than 100 megabytes. So you can decide which ones you no longer need.

4. Step 4. Empty the Trash to reclaim space

   When you delete files on a Mac, they go to the Trash but still take up storage space. To permanently remove them, right-click (or two-finger click) the Trash icon in the Dock and choose "Empty Trash." Click "Empty Trash" again to confirm.

   Warning

   Once you empty the Trash, those files are gone for good. Make sure you do not need any of them before confirming.

5. Step 5. Remove apps you no longer use

   Open Finder and click "Applications" in the left sidebar. Look through your apps and find any you no longer use. Drag them to the Trash icon in the Dock. Then empty the Trash to free up the space. Some apps are large and removing even one or two unused ones can free up a lot of room on your Mac.