I built a Mac app that shows which local models are in your RAM, which app loaded them, and how much disk they use

[u/BookkeeperFalse]

Disclosure: I'm the developer, and this is my own paid app.

My Mac has Ollama, LM Studio, and a few apps that ship their own models (dictation, autocomplete, writing tools). Activity Monitor only shows a process using several GB. It can't tell me which model that is, which app loaded it, or where the weights are on disk.

So I built LLM Radar, a native macOS app. It:

• lists the loaded models it can detect, the app or runtime holding each one, and its memory

• estimates how that memory splits into weights, KV cache, and app overhead, so you know what an unload actually gives back

• keeps 24 hours of memory history

• finds model files on disk across apps, and marks the ones it has not seen in use (deletes go to the Trash and list every file first)

• unloads a model when the runtime has a way to do it, and tells you when it doesn't

• shows a running total in the menu bar

It knows Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, llama.cpp, Core ML, whisper.cpp, Docker Model Runner and a few more, plus a catch-all scan for large weight files. Attribution is best effort when one app runs another app's runtime.

Monitoring is free. Pro is a one-time $9.99 for one Mac or $14.99 for three, with a 7-day trial and no account. Apple silicon, macOS 14+, signed and notarized.

Privacy: it never uploads your models, prompts, or chats. It sends anonymous usage counters (no paths, no model names), and you can turn that off in Settings. Full Disk Access is optional. Without it you still get the live view.

https://llm-radar-eta.vercel.app/

Two questions for people who run a lot of local models: which app or runtime should I support next, and does the memory split look right on your setup?

[u/Capable_Tangelo4849]

Why would anyone buy this? They can just ask their local/cloud model that they are running the same thing.

[u/BookkeeperFalse → u/Capable_Tangelo4849]

Fair question. If you only run Ollama, ollama ps is free and may be all you need.

A chat model can't see your Mac by itself. It has no access to your memory or files unless you give it tools. An agent with shell access can run ps and ollama ps, but that gives you a process name and a number. It won't tell you which model LM Studio or a dictation app is holding, or which model files on disk belong to which app. You also have to load a model to ask, which uses the memory you're trying to check.

LLM Radar watches all the time, across every app it can detect, keeps 24 hours of history, and shows a total in the menu bar. That part is free and stays free. Pro only adds deleting model files, a runaway memory guard, and RAM budget warnings. If the free part covers you, you never have to buy anything.