---
title: Telegraf Documentation
description: Telegraf plugin for collecting metrics from Memory
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1/input-plugins/mem/
estimated_tokens: 1025
product: Telegraf
version: v1
---

-   Telegraf v0.1.5+

# Memory Input Plugin

This plugin collects metrics about the system memory.

For an explanation of the difference between *used* and *actual\_used* RAM, see [Linux ate my ram](http://www.linuxatemyram.com/).

**Introduced in:** Telegraf v0.1.5 **Tags:** system **OS support:** all

## Global configuration options

Plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings for tasks such as modifying metrics, tags, and fields, creating aliases, and configuring plugin ordering. See [CONFIGURATION.md](/telegraf/v1/configuration/#plugins) for more details.

## Configuration

```toml
# Read metrics about memory usage
[[inputs.mem]]
  # no configuration
```

## Metrics

Available fields are dependent on platform.

-   mem
    -   fields:
        -   active (integer, Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD)
        -   available (integer)
        -   available\_percent (float)
        -   buffered (integer, FreeBSD, Linux)
        -   cached (integer, FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD)
        -   commit\_limit (integer, Linux)
        -   committed\_as (integer, Linux)
        -   dirty (integer, Linux)
        -   free (integer, Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD)
        -   high\_free (integer, Linux)
        -   high\_total (integer, Linux)
        -   huge\_pages\_free (integer, Linux)
        -   huge\_page\_size (integer, Linux)
        -   huge\_pages\_total (integer, Linux)
        -   inactive (integer, Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD)
        -   laundry (integer, FreeBSD)
        -   low\_free (integer, Linux)
        -   low\_total (integer, Linux)
        -   mapped (integer, Linux)
        -   page\_tables (integer, Linux)
        -   shared (integer, Linux)
        -   slab (integer, Linux)
        -   sreclaimable (integer, Linux)
        -   sunreclaim (integer, Linux)
        -   swap\_cached (integer, Linux)
        -   swap\_free (integer, Linux)
        -   swap\_total (integer, Linux)
        -   total (integer)
        -   used (integer)
        -   used\_percent (float)
        -   vmalloc\_chunk (integer, Linux)
        -   vmalloc\_total (integer, Linux)
        -   vmalloc\_used (integer, Linux)
        -   wired (integer, Darwin, FreeBSD, OpenBSD)
        -   write\_back (integer, Linux)
        -   write\_back\_tmp (integer, Linux)

## Example Output

```text
mem active=9299595264i,available=16818249728i,available_percent=80.41654254645131,buffered=2383761408i,cached=13316689920i,commit_limit=14751920128i,committed_as=11781156864i,dirty=122880i,free=1877688320i,high_free=0i,high_total=0i,huge_page_size=2097152i,huge_pages_free=0i,huge_pages_total=0i,inactive=7549939712i,low_free=0i,low_total=0i,mapped=416763904i,page_tables=19787776i,shared=670679040i,slab=2081071104i,sreclaimable=1923395584i,sunreclaim=157675520i,swap_cached=1302528i,swap_free=4286128128i,swap_total=4294963200i,total=20913917952i,used=3335778304i,used_percent=15.95004011996231,vmalloc_chunk=0i,vmalloc_total=35184372087808i,vmalloc_used=0i,wired=0i,write_back=0i,write_back_tmp=0i 1574712869000000000
```

#### Related

-   [Configure plugins](/telegraf/v1/configure_plugins/)
-   [Memory Plugin Source](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/v1.38.4/plugins/inputs/mem/README.md)