CPU Stress Test
CPU Stress Test is a macOS utility for driving your Mac's processor to high load so you can test thermal behavior and battery endurance.
What is CPU Stress Test?
CPU Stress Test, published by Tunabelly Software Inc., is a native Mac utility for stressing the CPU to evaluate sustained load, heat, and battery drain. It is designed for users who want to check cooling performance, compare behavior before and after maintenance, or see how a Mac handles long periods of heavy processor use. The app lets you start a high-load test without using Terminal commands and shows live status while the test is running. It also supports logging results to a CSV file, which is useful if you want to review test duration, CPU load, or battery behavior afterward. The app is available for modern Intel and Apple silicon Macs and is aimed at diagnostics, troubleshooting, and simple performance testing workflows.
Key features
- Start a CPU stress test with a click instead of using Terminal commands
- Choose how many CPU threads to load for lighter or heavier testing
- Monitor CPU load, battery status, and elapsed test time in real time
- Log test data to a CSV file for later review and comparison
- Run natively on both Intel and Apple silicon Macs
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Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
This app is a legitimate diagnostic utility, but its normal purpose is to push the processor to sustained high usage. During a test, your Mac may run hotter, fans may spin up, and battery life will drop faster than usual. That behavior is expected for this type of tool. Use it for testing sessions rather than all-day background use, and stop the test if your Mac becomes uncomfortably hot or unstable.
Recommendation: Keep CPU Stress Test if you intentionally use it for thermal checks, battery testing under load, or troubleshooting performance-related issues. If you do not run stress tests on your Mac, you can remove it without affecting normal macOS operation.
Common paths
/Applications/CPU Stress Test.app
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