Mac screen recorder statistics 2026
How much disk, memory and CPU the popular Mac screen recorders use, measured on one Mac with the same scripts. Every number below comes with its unit, the app version and the date, and the raw data is a CSV you can download.
Research by Maryna Klokova, Screen Records. Last updated 2026-09-29. We make one of the apps measured here, so the method and data are public for anyone who wants to check them.
Key findings
- Screen Records 0.1.5 is 10.9 MB installed. The 5 third-party Mac screen recorders we measured range from 380.4 MB (Cap 0.6.0) to 863.5 MB (Loom 0.378.0), measured 2026-09-29 on an M4 Pro MacBook Pro running macOS 15.5 (24F74).
- Loom 0.378.0 is 79 times the installed size of Screen Records 0.1.5 (863.5 MB vs 10.9 MB, 2026-09-29).
- 3 of the 5 third-party recorders we measured (Screen Studio, Screen Charm, Loom) ship their own copy of Electron. The Electron framework alone is 264.6–266 MB in each, about 24 times the whole Screen Records app (2026-09-29).
- Sitting idle, Screen Records 0.1.5 used 114.8 MB of RAM and 0.4% of one CPU core. Loom 0.378.0 used 1129.6 MB, about 10 times as much memory (median of 3 runs of 60 one-second samples, 2026-09-29).
Installed size of Mac screen recorders
The size of each app in the Applications folder, in decimal megabytes (1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes). That's the number Finder shows under Get Info, and it counts every file inside the app.
| App | Version | Installed size | Times Screen Records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Records | 0.1.5 | 10.9 MB | 1 |
| QuickTime Player (part of macos) | 10.5 | 6.6 MB | 0.6 |
| Cap | 0.6.0 | 380.4 MB | 34.9 |
| OBS | 32.2.2 | 453.5 MB | 41.6 |
| Screen Studio | 3.7.5 | 653.0 MB | 59.9 |
| Screen Charm | 1.11.2 | 690.2 MB | 63.3 |
| Loom | 0.378.0 | 863.5 MB | 79.2 |
How much of that is a bundled browser
An Electron app ships its own copy of Chromium, the engine behind Chrome, inside the app. Three of the recorders carry one, and nothing is shared between them, so each copy takes its own space on disk. Screen Records is written in Swift against frameworks macOS already ships, and neither Cap nor OBS includes Electron. Why Mac apps take up so much storage explains how to check any app on your own Mac.
| App | Electron version | Electron framework size | Share of the app |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Studio | 39.2.7 | 264.6 MB | 41% |
| Screen Charm | 39.2.4 | 264.7 MB | 38% |
| Loom | 39.2.6 | 266.0 MB | 31% |
Idle memory and CPU
What each app uses while it sits open and does nothing. The app is launched fresh (never its first launch on this Mac), left alone for 30 seconds, then sampled once a second for 60 seconds. Each app ran 3 times, and the table shows the median run with the lowest and highest in brackets. RAM is resident memory summed over the app's processes. CPU is a percent of one core, the scale Activity Monitor uses.
| App | Version | RAM (median) | CPU (median) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Records | 0.1.5 | 114.8 MB (99.5–122.4) | 0.4% (0.1–0.5) |
| QuickTime Player* | 10.5 | 140.8 MB (136.2–149.2) | 0.0% (0.0–0.3) |
| OBS* | 32.2.2 | 155.1 MB (154.2–158.1) | 9.4% (7.7–9.5) |
| Cap | 0.6.0 | 222.5 MB (206.9–286.3) | 1.0% (0.9–1.3) |
| Screen Studio | 3.7.5 | 433.7 MB (415.2–459.5) | 6.0% (5.6–10.6) |
| Screen Charm* | 1.11.2 | 440.5 MB (439.2–519.4) | 46.7% (33.2–48.0) |
| Loom | 0.378.0 | 1129.6 MB (1098.9–1276.3) | 3.1% (1.5–11.4) |
* QuickTime Player: Includes the Open panel QuickTime shows at launch.
* OBS: Its idle CPU is the live preview of its default scene.
* Screen Charm: Opens straight into its recording bar with the microphone selected, and its GPU and renderer helpers stay busy.
Not measured yet
A missing number stays missing until it is measured. These are the gaps and the reason for each.
- File size per minute, RAM and CPU while recording, and export time. These need a person clicking through each app. The runs are scheduled.
- 1080p and 4K recordings. They need an external display at that resolution, and none was attached.
- ScreenFlow, Camtasia and CleanShot X. Not installed on the benchmark Mac yet.
Method
- Mac
- MacBook Pro (Mac16,8), Apple M4 Pro, 48 GB RAM
- macOS
- macOS 15.5 (24F74)
- Display
- Built-in Retina display, 3024 × 1964, scaled to look like 1352 × 878. No external display
- Date
- 2026-09-29
Installed size is the sum of the sizes of every file in the app bundle. The CSV also has the space allocated on disk, which is what du reports and can be slightly larger.
Idle usage counts a process if it lives inside the app, or if macOS holds the app responsible for it, the same grouping Activity Monitor uses. That includes the WebKit processes that draw a web-based app's interface. System services every app shares, such as WindowServer and the screen capture daemons, are left out. So is the Screen Records MCP helper, which AI clients start on their own. Activity Monitor's Memory column shows a different figure, physical footprint, so it will not match the RAM column exactly.
Rejected runs. A run is thrown out, not averaged in, when the app was busy with work of its own or when its processes quit partway through sampling.
Everything in this study is in the benchmark CSV, one row per app and metric, with the conditions and notes. You may reuse the data with a link to this page.
Changes to this page
- 2026-09-29 Added idle figures for Screen Studio and OBS. Every installed app now has one.
- 2026-09-29 Idle figures are now the median of 3 runs, with the range. Added idle figures for Loom and Screen Charm, and OBS installed size.
- 2026-09-29 First publication: installed size for 6 apps, bundled Electron size for 3, idle RAM and CPU for 3.