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How Much Space an App Takes on a Mac and How to Remove It

How to see an app's size on a Mac, where to find all apps sorted by size and how to remove an app completely, with its settings, caches and login items.

· 5 min read · Updated October 24, 2026

macOSMac Performance

An app tile weighs down one pan of a scale while Maxim drops another tile into a bin; the holographic cat sweeps tiny leftover tiles in with its tail

Finder shows an app’s size: select it in Applications and press ⌘I. All apps with their sizes are in System Settings → General → Storage, under Applications. Remove an app with its own uninstaller if it has one; otherwise move it to the Trash.

Leftovers are usually small; clear them by hand only when you’re sure what you’re deleting.

A quick note on names. The folder in Finder is Applications. Apps is the launcher that replaced Launchpad in macOS 26 and later. This guide is about the folder.

The size of one app

  1. Open Finder → Applications.
  2. Select the app and press ⌘I (or File → Get Info).
  3. Look at the Size line in the General section.

A Mac app is a package — a folder, not a single file — so for big apps Finder takes a second or two to add it up. There’s no need to look inside with Show Package Contents: the size in Get Info already covers everything in there.

Keep in mind this is the size of the app itself. Its data — caches, downloads, chat history, libraries — lives separately in your user folder and can be bigger than the app.

All apps by size

Apple menu → System Settings → General → Storage. At the top is a bar showing how full the disk is, below it the categories. Click ⓘ next to Applications: you’ll get a list of every installed app except system apps, with a Size column. Click the column header to sort — the heaviest apps rise to the top.

Select an app you don’t need and click Delete; macOS asks to confirm and removes it. Show in Finder opens the app in Finder if you want a look first.

How to remove an app the standard way

The order Apple recommends:

  1. Quit the app if it’s open (⌘Q).
  2. Look for an uninstaller. Some third-party apps ship an “Uninstall” or “Uninstaller” app in the same folder. If there is one, Apple calls it the best way to delete the app.
  3. Otherwise, use the Trash. Drag the app from Applications to the Trash, or select it and choose File → Move to Trash (⌘⌫). If macOS asks for a name and password, enter an administrator’s.
  4. Empty the Trash (Finder → Empty Trash) — only then is the space freed.

What removing an app doesn’t touch:

  • documents you created with it stay wherever you saved them;
  • a subscription bought in the app isn’t cancelled — you cancel it separately.

Apps your Mac requires — Mail, Music, Books, Notes, Maps and others — can’t be deleted in Finder. Storage doesn’t list system apps at all.

What stays behind

Only the app package goes to the Trash. What the app created while it ran usually stays in ~/Library, the Library folder inside your home folder:

  • ~/Library/Application Support — data and databases;
  • ~/Library/Caches — caches;
  • ~/Library/Preferences — settings, .plist files;
  • ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Group Containers — data of sandboxed apps, App Store apps included;
  • ~/Library/LaunchAgents — jobs that start an app’s helpers at login.

These are the usual places, not a complete list: every app has its own habits. Most often the leftovers are settings and caches measured in megabytes. The exceptions are apps that keep large data of their own — messengers with chat history, editors with libraries, games. Their folder in Application Support can take gigabytes.

An app may also have added login items and background items — helpers that start when you log in. After removing the app, check whether they’re still listed.

How to clear leftovers carefully

Login items. Apple menu → System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions:

  • under Open at Login, select the removed app’s row and click “−” below the list;
  • under Background App Activity, turn off the switch for its helpers;
  • under Extensions, check that none of its extensions are left.

Data folders. In Finder choose Go → Go to Folder… (⇧⌘G), enter ~/Library/Application Support and look for a folder named after the app or its developer. Do the same in Caches and Containers; in Containers the folder may be named with the app’s identifier, like com.developer.app.

The rules are simple:

  • delete only what clearly has the removed app in its name;
  • leave Apple’s folders (com.apple.…) and those of apps you use alone;
  • move to the Trash rather than erasing straight away: if something goes wrong, you can put the folder back.

In doubt? Leave it. A few megabytes of stray settings don’t bother the Mac, and if you install the app again it will most likely pick them up.

What not to do

  • Don’t trust “cleaners” with loud numbers. “12 GB of junk found” usually means caches that apps will rebuild right away. You don’t need them to remove apps: everything above uses built-in tools.
  • Don’t delete system apps or folders — not in Terminal, not with third-party utilities.
  • Don’t wipe ~/Library wholesale following some list from the internet: it holds every app’s data, including mail and messages.

If the removed app had widgets, they may stay on the desktop empty — remove them as shown in the widgets guide. Tidying up menu bar icons is covered in the menu bar guide. And if the disk is running out and apps aren’t the reason, start with the Disk step in diagnosing a slow Mac.

In the app

The Disk widget in Mac Resources shows how full the system volume is, with a graph and a label like “2.4 of 4.0 TB”. It counts in base 1000, like Finder, so you can see right away how much space came back after removing an app and emptying the Trash. It doesn’t show the size of individual apps or their leftovers: for that, use Storage and Finder. How full the disk is says nothing about wear: how much has been written to the SSD over its lifetime is covered in the SSD wear guide.

Mac Resources itself comes off in three steps — no uninstaller needed:

  1. choose Quit in the menu bar item’s menu;
  2. remove the Mac Resources widgets from the desktop;
  3. move HostWidgets from Applications to the Trash.

Like any sandboxed app, it leaves two small settings folders behind: ~/Library/Containers/me.beregov.host-widgets and ~/Library/Containers/me.beregov.host-widgets.widgets. To remove everything, go to ~/Library/Containers with Go → Go to Folder… and move both folders to the Trash.

The app turns on Open at login by itself at first launch; you turn it off in the menu bar item’s menu. You can switch it off before removing the app and afterwards check Login Items & Extensions: if a HostWidgets row is still there, remove it with “−”.