Gravity · macOS menu bar utility
Gravity is a feather-light menu-bar companion for Finder. Open any folder and it shows live file and folder sizes — as a ring, a grid, or a bar. Turn on History and it also shows what grew, what shrank, and where your space went. One keystroke away and never in your way.
An oversized name for a tiny wittle utility. (Why the f*ck did I do that?)
Finder shows names and dates — not what’s actually taking up room. So you right-click folder after folder, or install a bloated “cleaner” that wants a monthly fee.
“Get Info” on every folder, one at a time. No overview, ever.
Stop what you’re doing, open a separate app, wait for a full scan.
Bloated suites, scary “smart” deletions, and a subscription on top.
Gravity fixes the boring part: it shows you what’s big now — and remembers what changed while you weren’t looking.
History monitor
Turn on History and Gravity takes quiet, scheduled snapshots of the folder you choose. Come back later to see exactly what grew, what shrank, and where the space went.
Off by default · Runs locally · You choose the folder, schedule, thresholds, and retention
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History compares quiet, scheduled snapshots. In this example it reveals 17.4 GB of net growth, led by Library and Movies, while Downloads freed 6.8 GB.
Folder watcher
Hold Shift and click any graph segment, tile, or bar to temporarily monitor that file or folder. Then perform your test and let Gravity record the filesystem activity as it happens.
Local FSEvents · Pauses through sleep and downtime · Reports actual active monitoring time
Folder Watcher starts with a Shift-click on a graph item. It groups live filesystem events, preserves the affected paths for drill-down, and stops at the monitor’s chosen deadline.
The ring up top, plus a grid and a bar — same live data, whichever view fits your brain. Switch instantly.
Follows whatever folder you have open. No separate app, no importing.
Toggle the overlay with ⌃⇧G or the menu-bar scale icon.
Click any slice or tile to select that item in Finder instantly.
Opt in to scheduled snapshots and trace growth or freed space over time.
Sizes calculate in the background while you keep working.
Reads sizes locally. Never opens, moves, or transmits your files.
Gravity does one thing well. Here’s how that stacks up against the usual suspects.
A separate scan before you can explore.
Open a folder and its live breakdown is already there.
STFU — this page answers it all
Gravity watches the active Finder window and shows live file and folder sizes in a floating overlay. Toggle it with ⌃⇧G or click the scale icon in your menu bar. Switch between ring, grid, and bar views, click any item to select it in Finder, or turn on History to see what grew and shrank over time.
History is optional and off by default. When you enable it, Gravity takes low-energy snapshots of a folder you choose on your chosen schedule. You can compare changes from this session through the last 30 days, drill into the folders responsible, and reveal any result in Finder. Everything stays local; you control the scan thresholds and how long raw history is kept.
Yes. Gravity is free and open source under the MIT license. No trial, no subscription, no “pro” tier. Donations are appreciated but never required.
Automation (Finder) is required — macOS will prompt on first launch. Optionally, grant Full Disk Access to avoid repeated prompts when sizing protected libraries, and Accessibility for instant selection sync.
No. Gravity only reads file sizes locally on your Mac. It never opens, moves, modifies, or transmits your files anywhere.
Yes — Gravity is built to sip power, sizing only the folder Finder is showing and staying idle the rest of the time. The one thing that drives usage up is continuous rescanning: if the overlay is open on a directory whose contents change constantly — like your Library or home folder — Gravity keeps re-measuring it, which uses noticeably more energy than normal. If you’re browsing a busy folder like that, simply hiding the overlay (⌃⇧G) stops the rescanning. You can also add directories to skip in Settings, so Gravity never re-measures them automatically.
Gravity requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Disk Inventory X scans your whole disk in a separate app. Gravity is a menu bar companion that visualizes whatever folder Finder currently has open — live, non-blocking, and always one click away.
Gravity is a menu bar app (LSUIElement). It lives near the clock as a scale icon and stays out of your Dock. Look for the scale symbol, or press ⌃⇧G.
Releases are published on GitHub Releases. If nothing is there yet, you can build from source with Xcode 15+.
Bug report, feature idea, or just saying hi — drop a line.
