Is My Mac Intel or Silicon?

To check if your Mac has an Intel or Apple Silicon processor, click the Apple icon in the top left of your screen, and select About This Mac. Where it says Chip, you’ll see which type of processor you have. This will either be an Intel chip or Apple chip (M1, M2, M3, M4).

How to tell if a Mac is Intel or Apple Silicon?

macOS offers a few different ways to check if your Mac is an Intel or Apple Silicon version. First of all, you can use the About This Mac panel, your System Settings, or System Information. It’s also possible to bring up this information using the Terminal command line tool.

A note from our experts: 

 

Whether you have an Intel or Apple Silicon Mac, you can clean out junk files and save space on your laptop with MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup tool.

 

Here’s how:

1. Download and run MacKeeper.
2. Select Safe Cleanup from the list on the left.
3. Click Start Scan.
4. When the scan is finished, select what to delete, and click Clean Junk Files.

1. Using “About this Mac”

We often use the About This Mac panel to get a quick summary of our Macs and macOS versions. Here’s how to check your Mac processor to see if it’s an Intel or Apple Silicon model using About This Mac:

1. Click the Apple icon in the top left of your screen.
2. Select About This Mac.
3. In the About This Mac panel, look where it says Chip.
4. Your Mac will either have an Intel or Apple Silicon processor.

Having issues with macOS? Learn how to boot your Mac in Safe Mode.

2. Using system information or system report

macOS also includes a system report function, which gives you a detailed view of your Mac’s hardware and software. Here’s how to tell if your Mac is Intel or Apple Silicon using System Information:

1. Press Cmd+Spacebar to open Spotlight.
2. Search for and open System Information.
3. Select Hardware from the side menu.
4. Check where it says Chip to see what type of processor you have.

You can also see what version of macOS you have—useful if you want to know how to downgrade macOS.

3. Through System Settings

A lot of important information can be found in your Mac’s settings. Here’s how to know if you have an Apple Silicon or Intel machine using System Settings:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Select General from the menu on the side.
3. Select About. You’ll see a summary of your Mac or MacBook on the right.
4. Where it says Chip, you’ll see what type of processor you have.

A hint from our team: 

 

System Settings are an important part of keeping your Mac up to date. If you have any trouble, check our guide on what to do if your Mac can't connect to the Apple software update server.

4. Using Terminal

It’s possible to check what type of Mac processor you have using the macOS command line too. Simply do as follows:

1. Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities.
2. Type in system_profiler SPHardwareDataType and press Enter.
3. Terminal will give you a quick hardware overview.
4. Check where it says Chip to see what kind of processor you have.

If you find the version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled, Terminal can be very helpful.

Differences between Intel and Apple Silicon Macs

Apple Silicon and Intel Macs use completely different processors, based on different chip architectures. Older Macs use Intel chips, like those in Windows PCs, which is why Boot Camp lets you run Windows on your Mac. Apple Silicon chips (M1, M2, and so on) are newer, and they offer much better performance and power efficiency than the old Intel processors. Apple has already stopped making Intel Macs and will eventually only support Apple Silicon.

All Macs deserve great performance

As you’ve seen, there are several ways to check whether you have an Intel or Apple Silicon Mac. For sheer speed and simplicity, we prefer the About This Mac option. If we need to see more detailed information, we can always look in System Settings too, or bring up a system report.

Whatever type of Mac you have, make sure it’s free of unnecessary data junk files. Simply scan your computer with MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup, and you can save a ton of space in just a few moments.