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Find which app is eating your bandwidth (nethogs)

Live per-program upload/download speeds, like Task Manager's network tab.

LinuxnetworkmonitoringnethogsbandwidthMedium risk
Run sudo nethogs to see every program's current upload and download speed, sorted live; press Ctrl+C to exit.

01Command

Command
$ sudo nethogs

02What it does

Unlike vnstat or iftop, nethogs attributes traffic to the actual process, so you instantly see whether it's a browser tab, a cloud sync client or a package update hogging the line. It refreshes every second or two and shows both sent and received rates per program. Use -d 5 for a slower, calmer refresh interval.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
Requirementsnethogs installed (Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install nethogs)
!Warning: It needs sudo because mapping connections to processes requires root; the numbers are instantaneous rates, not daily totals — use vnstat for that.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • nethogs(8) — Ubuntu manual page
    Ubuntu · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: NetHogs groups bandwidth by process and shows sent/received traffic per application in real time, like 'top' for network usage.
  • nethogs(8) — manual page
    Arch Linux · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: nethogs displays per-process TCP/UDP bandwidth usage live; root privileges are needed to map traffic to programs.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Network

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