What is WebKit GPU (Safari Graphics and Media) on Mac?
By Junaid, maker of Taskglass · Last reviewed
Handles graphics, video and audio for web pages in Safari and other WebKit apps.
The WebKit GPU process does graphics drawing, video playback, audio and camera or microphone access for web pages, separately from the pages themselves for security. It's busier when websites play video, run animations or use WebGL.
- Category
- Apple app
- Made by
- Apple
- Safe to quit:
- With care
Shown in Activity Monitor as com.apple.WebKit.GPU, Safari Graphics and Media
Why is WebKit GPU (Safari Graphics and Media) using so much CPU or memory?
- Video playback, especially high resolution
- Animated or 3D websites and web games
- Video calls in the browser
What to do
- 1Pause videos or close tabs with heavy graphics
- 2Quit and reopen Safari
- 3Restart your Mac if it stays high with no media playing
Safe to quit? With care.
It relaunches automatically; video and audio in open pages may stop.
Related processes
- WebKit Web Content (Safari Web Content)Runs one or more web pages in a separate process for Safari and other apps that show web content.
- SafariApple's web browser. Web pages themselves run in separate WebKit processes.
- VTDecoderXPCServiceDecodes (and encodes) video for apps using Apple's VideoToolbox, often with hardware help.
Part of the Taskglass Process Library