How to see which apps are running on a Mac, and quit them

Closing an app's last window usually doesn't quit it. Apple's guide to quitting apps notes that the app stays open, with a dot below its icon in the Dock, which is how a Mac ends up running more apps than you can see. Each place below shows a different slice of them; quit vs close on Mac explains the difference itself.

The Dock's indicators

Apps you open appear in the Dock while they run, even ones you haven't kept there, and a small dot below an icon means that app is open. If you see no dots, turn on Show indicators for open applications in System Settings › Desktop & Dock; Apple's guide describes it the same way for macOS 14 through 27.

To quit an app from the Dock, Control-click its icon and choose Quit. If it has stopped responding, the same menu offers Force Quit, which Apple warns can lose unsaved changes. The Dock leaves out apps that run without a Dock icon, which includes many menu bar apps.

⌘Tab

Hold ⌘ and press Tab, and the app switcher shows your open apps in a row, starting with the most recently used. It includes apps that have no windows open, and like the Dock it leaves out apps without a Dock icon. Its keys:

Force Quit Applications

Press ⌥⌘Esc, or choose Apple menu › Force Quit…, and a window lists the apps you have open. It's a quick list to read, but its button force quits: the app ends at once, and changes it hadn't saved can be lost. Finder is always open; select it and the button reads Relaunch. Use this window for an app that has stopped responding, and quit the others normally. How to force quit an app covers what to do when even this fails.

Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor shows every process on your Mac: apps, parts of macOS, and background processes with nothing on screen. It's in the Utilities folder inside Applications, or search for it with Spotlight. The View menu narrows the list; these are the views that help most when you're looking for apps, as Apple's Activity Monitor guide describes them:

Type a name in the search field to find one app. One that has stopped responding is marked “(Not Responding)”. To quit it, select it, click the Stop button at the top left and choose Quit, which works like choosing Quit in the app and won't go ahead if that could lose data or disturb another app, or Force Quit, which stops it at once.

Quit several apps at once

1. From the app switcher

   Hold ⌘ and press Tab until the app you want is selected, then press Q. Keep holding ⌘, move to the next app and press Q again. Each app quits the normal way, so one with unsaved changes asks you first.

2. In Activity Monitor

   Choose View › Windowed Processes, ⌘-click each app you want to quit, then click the Stop button. When Activity Monitor asks whether you're sure you want to quit these processes, click Quit. Select only apps you recognize.

3. By logging out

   Press ⇧⌘Q to log out of your account, which quits every app you have open; macOS asks you to confirm. Deselect Reopen windows when logging back in in that confirmation so the apps don't come back when you log in again.

Menu bar apps

Some apps run without a Dock icon and show only an icon toward the right end of the menu bar, among what Apple calls status menus. They don't appear in the Dock or the app switcher, so Activity Monitor is the place to check for them. To quit one, click its icon: the Quit item is usually in that menu, sometimes behind a gear or settings button. If you can't find it, select the app in Activity Monitor, click Stop and choose Quit.

On macOS 26 and later, System Settings › Menu Bar has an Allow in the Menu Bar list of apps that provide menu bar items, with a switch to show or hide each one's item (Apple). Hiding an icon there doesn't quit the app, so an app with a hidden icon can still be running. On macOS 14 and 15 there's no such list: Control Center settings cover only macOS's own items.

With Flick

Flick, the window switcher we make, lists windows rather than apps, and it also shows apps that are running with no windows open: each gets one row with “No windows” under its name. That's on by default; turn off Show apps without windows in Flick's Settings › General if you'd rather not see them (Flick's list settings).

To quit an app from the list, hold ⌥ and tap Tab until one of its rows is selected, or type part of its name, then press ⌥⇧Q (⌘Q if you use ⌘Tab as Flick's trigger). Or right-click the row and choose Quit App from the actions menu, which also has Force Quit App… for an app that has stopped responding. Quit is the normal kind, so an app can still ask you to save. Flick stays open and the list updates, so you can move straight on to the next app.

Flick lists apps that have a Dock icon, so menu bar apps aren't in it; use Activity Monitor for those. In the free version the list holds your 5 most recent entries, and an app without windows counts as one of them.

Close, quit and force quit from Flick's list