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Device Monitor

How to check how much RAM your iPhone has, and its other specs

iOS Settings won't show you RAM, but Device Monitor will. Add the Device Info card to Monitor and read RAM, Processor, CPU Cores, Total Storage and Model in one list. Expect the RAM to round down to a whole gigabyte - it can read one lower than the box promised.

3 min read · Updated 2026-10-06

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Why Settings does not tell you

Settings > General > About will tell you the model, the iOS version, storage capacity. RAM isn't in there anywhere - Apple just doesn't list it on the phone. An app can still ask iOS for the physical memory size directly, which is exactly what Device Monitor does.

How to check iPhone RAM, step by step

  1. Open Device Monitor on the Monitor tab.
  2. Tap the slider icon top left to open Edit Dashboard.
  3. Under Available Widgets, tap Device Info to add it to Your Dashboard. Drag it to the top if that's your style, then tap Done.
  4. Read Model (the name plus Apple's identifier, something like iPhone16,1), Processor, CPU Cores, RAM and Total Storage off the card.
  5. Tap any row to copy its value - handy for pasting into a listing or a support ticket.

Why the numbers are lower than the box

Two things conspire to make the number look low. iOS reports slightly less memory than the marketing figure to begin with, and the app then divides by 1,073,741,824 bytes (a binary gigabyte) and rounds down to a whole number. Storage gets the same treatment, while the box on the shelf counts a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes - a different unit entirely.

Example: how a physical memory size becomes the RAM row
iOS reportsDivided by 1,073,741,824RAM row shows
7,971,127,296 bytes7.427 GB

So yes, a phone sold with 8 GB of RAM can honestly show 7 GB on this screen. Nothing is missing; it's rounding, twice over. What's worth questioning is a gap of several whole gigabytes against the published spec for that exact model - that's not rounding anymore.

How to check iPhone RAM usage live

The RAM Monitor card (titled RAM Live) refreshes every 2 seconds: used and total memory, a bar, Used, Free, and Pressure - Low below 60% used, Medium up to 85%, High above that.

Example RAM Live reading
UsedTotalBarPressure
5.0 GB8.0 GB62%Medium

High use is normal on iOS, not a warning sign - unused memory is wasted memory, so the system keeps recent apps loaded and only frees space when it actually needs to. The app has no way to list which apps are hogging it; iOS simply doesn't hand that out.

Storage: used, free and total

The Storage card (Storage Breakdown) shows Used, Total and Free straight from the file system, and those three are real. The coloured split into system, apps, media and other, though, is a fixed proportion of used space, identical on every phone - for a true breakdown by app, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage instead.

Save or share the specs

Tap the share icon top right and pick Export PDF. You get one page covering device information, the screen (resolution, pixel density, refresh rate) and the cameras, ready to send by Mail or AirDrop or drop into Files. The free PDF carries a trial watermark; CSV and JSON exports are Pro only.

Questions and answers

Why is Device Info not on my dashboard?
It's free, just not in the default set. Add it yourself from Edit Dashboard, under Available Widgets.
Can I see which app uses the most RAM or CPU?
No - iOS won't let any app see another app's memory or CPU use. The CPU Usage figure you see belongs to Device Monitor alone.
Does it show the chip name?
Yes, the Processor row names the chip, right next to CPU Cores and the GPU.
Why does my storage show less than 128 GB?
Because the app counts in binary gigabytes and rounds down, while the box on the shelf uses decimal gigabytes. A 128 GB phone ends up showing a smaller whole number purely because of that.

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