Your data

Your history is a file you can open.

Vitals keeps what your Mac and each app used in one file on your Mac. It is an ordinary SQLite database, so you can ask it your own questions: when the Mac ran hot, which app used the most energy, how this month compares with the last.

Where it is

~/Library/Application Support/Vitals/history.sqlite

Open it with the sqlite3 command that comes with macOS, or with any app that reads SQLite. Read from it, and leave the writing to Vitals. Nothing in it leaves your Mac.

How the figures are written

Times are seconds since 1970, in UTC. datetime(start, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') turns one into your own time.
Every column says its unit in its name: bytes, seconds, percent, celsius, watts.
Percentages run from 0 to 100. For the Mac’s CPU that is of all cores.
A reading your Mac does not give, such as fan speed on a Mac without fans, is left empty.

The tables

readings How hard the Mac was pushed, a row every five minutes: the average and the highest CPU, memory, memory pressure, GPU, Neural Engine, temperature, fan speed and power.
system_hours What the whole Mac used, a row an hour: CPU, memory, network, disk and energy.
system_five_minutes The same, a row every five minutes, for the last two days.
system_minutes The same, a row a minute, for the last three hours.
app_days What each app used, a row for each app each day.
app_hours The same by the hour, for the last two days.

readings
start, seconds, cpu_percent_average, cpu_percent_peak, memory_used_bytes_average, memory_used_bytes_peak, memory_pressure_percent_average, memory_pressure_percent_peak, memory_pressure_level_peak, swap_used_bytes_peak, gpu_percent_average, gpu_percent_peak, neural_engine_percent_average, neural_engine_percent_peak, cpu_celsius_average, cpu_celsius_peak, hottest_celsius_average, hottest_celsius_peak, fan_rpm_average, fan_rpm_peak, power_watts_average, power_watts_peak, thermal_state_peak, battery_percent, plugged_in_seconds

system_hours, system_five_minutes, system_minutes
start, seconds, cpu_load_seconds, memory_byte_seconds, network_bytes_in, network_bytes_out, disk_bytes_read, disk_bytes_written, energy_joules

app_days, app_hours
start, app_id, name, kind, bundle_path, seconds, cpu_seconds, energy_joules, memory_byte_seconds, peak_memory_bytes, network_bytes_in, network_bytes_out, disk_bytes_read, disk_bytes_written

Queries to start from

The ten hottest five minutes of the last week

SELECT datetime(start, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') AS time,
       round(cpu_celsius_peak) AS celsius,
       round(cpu_percent_peak) AS cpu
FROM readings
WHERE start > strftime('%s', 'now', '-7 days')
ORDER BY cpu_celsius_peak DESC
LIMIT 10;

When memory was under pressure

SELECT datetime(start, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') AS time,
       memory_pressure_level_peak AS pressure,
       round(memory_used_bytes_peak / 1073741824.0, 1) AS gb
FROM readings
WHERE memory_pressure_level_peak != 'normal'
ORDER BY start DESC
LIMIT 20;

The apps that used the most energy in the last 30 days

SELECT name, round(sum(energy_joules) / 3600, 1) AS watt_hours
FROM app_days
WHERE start > strftime('%s', 'now', '-30 days')
GROUP BY name
ORDER BY watt_hours DESC
LIMIT 10;

How long it is kept

For 30 days, unless you choose longer in Settings → General → Keep History For: 90 days, 6 months or 1 year. Delete History, on the same page, empties the file.

Without SQL

Export → Export CSV on the Overview saves the same figures as CSV files for a spreadsheet. And with Vitals connected to an AI assistant, you can ask in your own words when your Mac was at its limits.