---
name: "kubectl-top-pod"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "kubectl"
version: "1.37.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/kubectl-top-pod"
---

# kubectl-top-pod(1)

Display resource (CPU/memory) usage of pods

Eric Paris Jan 2015

## NAME

kubectl top pod - Display resource (CPU/memory) usage of pods

## SYNOPSIS

**kubectl top pod** \[OPTIONS\]

## DESCRIPTION

Display resource (CPU/memory) usage of pods.

The 'top pod' command allows you to see the resource consumption of pods.

Due to the metrics pipeline delay, they may be unavailable for a few minutes since pod creation.

## OPTIONS

**-A**, **--all-namespaces**=false\
 	If present, list the requested object(s) across all namespaces. Namespace in current context is ignored even if specified with --namespace.

**--containers**=false\
 	If present, print usage of containers within a pod.

**--field-selector**=""\
 	Selector (field query) to filter on, supports '=', '==', and '!='.(e.g. --field-selector key1=value1,key2=value2). The server only supports a limited number of field queries per type.

**--no-headers**=false\
 	If present, print output without headers.

**-l**, **--selector**=""\
 	Selector (label query) to filter on, supports '=', '==', '!=', 'in', 'notin'.(e.g. -l key1=value1,key2=value2,key3 in (value3)). Matching objects must satisfy all of the specified label constraints.

**--show-swap**=false\
 	Print pod resources related to swap memory.

**--sort-by**=""\
 	If non-empty, sort pods list using specified field. The field can be either 'cpu' or 'memory'.

**--sum**=false\
 	Print the sum of the resource usage

**--use-protocol-buffers**=true\
 	Enables using protocol-buffers to access Metrics API.

## OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS

**--as**=""\
 	Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.

**--as-group**=\[\]\
 	Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.

**--as-uid**=""\
 	UID to impersonate for the operation.

**--as-user-extra**=\[\]\
 	User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.

**--cache-dir**="/home/username/.kube/cache"\
 	Default cache directory

**--certificate-authority**=""\
 	Path to a cert file for the certificate authority

**--client-certificate**=""\
 	Path to a client certificate file for TLS

**--client-key**=""\
 	Path to a client key file for TLS

**--cluster**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use

**--context**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig context to use

**--disable-compression**=false\
 	If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server

**--insecure-skip-tls-verify**=false\
 	If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure

**--kubeconfig**=""\
 	Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.

**--kuberc**=""\
 	Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL\_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.

**--match-server-version**=false\
 	Require server version to match client version

**-n**, **--namespace**=""\
 	If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request

**--password**=""\
 	Password for basic authentication to the API server

**--profile**="none"\
 	Name of profile to capture. One of (none\|cpu\|heap\|goroutine\|threadcreate\|block\|mutex\|trace)

**--profile-output**="profile.pprof"\
 	Name of the file to write the profile to

**--proxy-url**=""\
 	Proxy URL to use for requests to the API server

**--request-timeout**="0"\
 	The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.

**-s**, **--server**=""\
 	The address and port of the Kubernetes API server

**--tls-server-name**=""\
 	Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used

**--token**=""\
 	Bearer token for authentication to the API server

**--user**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig user to use

**--username**=""\
 	Username for basic authentication to the API server

**--version**=false\
 	\--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version

**--warnings-as-errors**=false\
 	Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code

## EXAMPLE

```
  # Show metrics for all pods in the default namespace
  kubectl top pod
  # Show metrics for all pods in the given namespace
  kubectl top pod --namespace=NAMESPACE
  # Show metrics for a given pod and its containers
  kubectl top pod POD_NAME --containers
  # Show metrics for the pods defined by label name=myLabel
  kubectl top pod -l name=myLabel
```

## SEE ALSO

**[kubectl-top(1)](/kubectl-top/1.md)**,

## HISTORY

January 2015, Originally compiled by Eric Paris (eparis at redhat dot com) based on the kubernetes source material, but hopefully they have been automatically generated since!