Pressure first
Normal, High, or Critical: how hard macOS is working to find memory, the same signal Activity Monitor uses. The menu bar glyph changes shape and color, so you notice without reading.
Know what your Mac's memory is really doing.
MangoMemory lives in your menu bar. It shows memory pressure, the number macOS actually cares about, finds the app using your RAM, and clears the file cache with Apple's own purge. No tricks, no upsell.
Most memory cleaners show the wrong number.
They count free memory, which is low on every healthy Mac: macOS puts spare RAM to work as file cache on purpose. MangoMemory shows what matters instead.
What is using it
The five apps using the most memory, with their helper processes counted in (Safari's web pages count toward Safari). Hover a row to Quit; if an app refuses, Force Quit asks first.
A real clear, honestly reported
Clear File Cache runs /usr/sbin/purge and tells you what it emptied: “Cleared 1.8 GB · pressure 53 % → 52 %”. When there is little to clear, it says so.
One glance at the menu bar
Plain at Normal, yellow at High, filled red at Critical. Next to it: available memory, pressure %, or nothing at all.
Everything in one small window
- Breakdown of App memory, Wired, Compressed, File cache, Free, and Swap, matching Activity Monitor.
- The last hour of pressure, one bar per minute, with every clear marked.
- Plain-language help: the ⓘ button explains each number, including why low Free is fine.
- Keep Window Open to float it above your work on every Space.
- Keyboard only: ⌃⌥M from anywhere, ↑ ↓ to pick an app, Return to quit it, ⌘K to clear, Escape to close.
- Light on your Mac: about 0.5 % CPU and under 30 MB, and it shows its own use in the footer.
Works on its own when you want it to
- Clear automatically when pressure stays high for 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 5 minutes.
- Clear automatically after a big app quits: over 1, 2, or 4 GB.
- One quiet notification when pressure turns Critical, naming the top app, with a Quit button. Then nothing for 30 minutes.
- One 3-minute cooldown for every clear, so it never clears over and over.
- Sync settings with iCloud across all your Macs.
- Updates itself: signed updates, checked before they install.
A helper that does one thing
purge only runs as root, so MangoMemory installs a tiny helper through Apple's SMAppService, which you approve once in System Settings.
One command
The helper runs /usr/sbin/purge and nothing else. It takes no arguments from anyone.
One caller
It answers only MangoMemory signed by our team, enforced by a code-signing check on every connection.
Your switch
Turn it off any time in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions.
No analytics, no accounts, no servers. MangoMemory reads memory statistics on your Mac only. Settings sync, if you leave it on, writes one small file to your iCloud Drive. Once a day it checks this website for a new version, and you can turn that off. The code is open: read every line on GitHub.
Install in a minute
- 1Download the zip from the latest release, unzip it, and move MangoMemory to Applications.
- 2Open it. It appears in the menu bar; there's no Dock icon.
- 3Click Allow Helper… in the window and turn MangoMemory on in Login Items & Extensions to clear the file cache.
Questions
Free memory is almost zero. Is that bad?
No. macOS fills spare memory with file cache so files open faster, and hands it back the moment an app needs it. Watch pressure, not Free.
Does clearing the file cache make my Mac faster?
Usually not by much, and MangoMemory says so. The emptied cache becomes free memory, but macOS already counted file cache as available, so pressure typically moves a point or two. It helps most right before something memory-hungry. The cache refills as you use files.
Why isn't it on the Mac App Store?
App Store apps must run in the sandbox, which forbids the root helper that runs purge and limits looking at other apps' memory. We'd rather ship the real thing, signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
Which Macs does it run on?
Macs with Apple silicon running macOS 26 Tahoe or later.
How do I remove it completely?
Turn the helper off in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, quit MangoMemory from its gear menu, and move it to the Trash.