How to check CPU frequency on Raspberry Pi

The CPU frequency, also known as the clock speed, is a measure of how many cycles per second your Raspberry Pi’s CPU can execute. It is measured in gigahertz (or GHz). In essence, the faster your CPU’s clock speed, the faster your Raspberry Pi can process requests. This will translate into a more responsive and snappier experience for the user as they do resource intensive tasks.

Of course, the Raspberry Pi is a lightweight and small device, not meant to have an incredible amount of CPU power. Nevertheless, it is surprising what such a small package can do. Some users choose to overclock their Raspberry Pi, in order to squeeze some extra performance out of it. At some point, you may be wondering what the clock speed is on your Raspberry Pi’s CPU. It can change depending on the situation, like if it has a lot of data to process or not.

In this tutorial, you will see how to check a Raspberry Pi’s current CPU frequency, as well as the maximum and minimum frequencies that the CPU has been configured to reach. This will give you some clues as to how fast your CPU is, if it is performing as you should expect, and if it has been overclocked or not.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to check current, minimum, and maximum CPU frequency on Raspberry Pi

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions

Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Raspberry Pi
Software	N/A
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to check CPU frequency on Raspberry Pi

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1. Check current CPU frequency:

   $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq
   

2. Check maximum CPU frequency:

   $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
   

3. Check minimum CPU frequency:

   $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
   

4. Check the CPU frequency:

   $ vcgencmd measure_clock arm