What is GoogleUpdater on Mac?

Last updated: 2026-08-05

What it is

GoogleUpdater is Google’s open-source background software update service. Its main job is to check for and install updates—including security patches—for Google Chrome, GoogleUpdater itself, and other desktop applications that have registered with it. The exact set of registered applications depends on the Mac, so the presence of GoogleUpdater does not by itself reveal which Google products beyond Chrome are installed.

GoogleUpdater is not part of macOS. It arrives with Google software and uses the official bundle identifier com.google.GoogleUpdater. Related background activity may also appear as com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake or as a “Google LLC” background item. Older discussions may call the update system Google Update, Google Software Update, GoogleSoftwareUpdate, or Keystone, the name of an earlier update component.

It does not usually run continuously. macOS periodically starts it through a LaunchAgent or LaunchDaemon, and expected copies may live inside a versioned GoogleUpdater directory under either the user or system Library’s Application Support/Google folder. Chrome extensions are a separate matter: Chromium contains an extension updater that runs inside the browser, so it is inaccurate to attribute all extension updating to GoogleUpdater.

Why it talks to the network

A scheduled background task wakes GoogleUpdater every hour, but a wake is not the same as a network connection. Under the current Chromium Updater specification, the default baseline interval for an actual update check is 4.5 hours. Hourly scheduling rounds that interval upward and adds a random delay, and an enterprise policy can change the schedule.

When a check is due, GoogleUpdater contacts Google’s update service. The source code’s default check endpoint is update.googleapis.com/service/update2/json. The request can include metadata needed to evaluate available updates, such as each registered application’s installed version and release channel, basic hardware information, and recent usage state.

If the service reports an available update, GoogleUpdater retrieves the package from a download address supplied in the server response and installs it. The download address is not fixed here, and it can vary with the response and updater behavior. An update check can also happen outside the periodic schedule: opening Chrome’s About page, installing an application, or making an explicit update request may trigger an immediate check.

Managed Macs can generate additional connections. GoogleUpdater may contact Google device-management services when enterprise management applies. If the relevant reporting has been permitted, it may also connect to Google endpoints used for statistics or crash reports. Those conditional connections should not be assumed to occur on every unmanaged Mac.

How much traffic is normal

Most GoogleUpdater activity should be intermittent and small. A check with no available update is normally a low-volume metadata exchange, far smaller than an ordinary web page load. The process may wake without making a request, and a successful check does not necessarily lead to a package download.

Traffic rises temporarily only when an update is available. The updater may receive either a differential package or a complete package, so the transfer size can vary substantially according to the application, the installed state, and the server response.

Google has not published a stable normal byte range for this traffic. A specific number of megabytes—or a claim that every check should stay below one fixed threshold—would therefore be unverified. The useful distinction is between occasional small checks and a temporary software-package download, not a universal byte limit.

Can you turn it off

The practical recommendation is to keep GoogleUpdater enabled. It delivers updates and security patches for Chrome and other registered Google desktop software while those applications are not open.

To disable its background activity, go to:

Apple menu > System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > App Background Activity > GoogleUpdater or Google LLC > Off

The displayed label can vary between GoogleUpdater and Google LLC. Older macOS wording may describe the same control as permission to run in the background.

After it is turned off, automatic update checks and installations may stop or be delayed whenever the relevant Google application is closed. Chrome could consequently miss timely security patches. Disabling this switch also does not guarantee that GoogleUpdater can never run: Chrome’s on-demand update flow, a reinstallation, or an enterprise management policy may invoke it again.

If you choose to disable the background item, regularly open Chrome > Help > About Google Chrome to request a manual update check. Temporarily limiting bandwidth is a different decision from pausing updates indefinitely; the latter carries a greater risk of leaving software and security fixes delayed.

What people get wrong

• “GoogleUpdater connects and downloads an update every hour.” The scheduler wakes it hourly, but the default server-check interval is roughly every several hours after schedule rounding and random delay. It downloads no software package when the server has no update to offer.

• “GoogleUpdater exists to update Chrome extensions.” Chromium has a separate ExtensionUpdater inside the browser. GoogleUpdater’s direct responsibility is updating registered desktop applications, which includes Chrome but is not the same as the browser’s extension-update mechanism.

• “Blocking or throttling it has no consequences.” Long-term blocking can delay feature updates and security patches for Chrome and other registered software. A short-lived bandwidth limit and a permanent pause do not have the same risk.

• “GoogleUpdater is an Apple system process.” It is installed by Google software, not supplied as a macOS component. Its official bundle identifier is com.google.GoogleUpdater.

• “Seeing GoogleUpdater means the Mac is infected.” A copy in the expected location whose signature matches the Google team is the normal Chrome update component. A same-named executable in an unexpected path, or one whose signature does not match, still needs separate verification; the name alone proves neither legitimacy nor infection.

Seeing what it actually used

To move from general expectations to evidence from your own Mac, check GoogleUpdater in Bytetally’s per-process statistics and review the time period you care about. Compare occasional small transfers with the short increase that may accompany an actual software update. Because no stable normal byte range has been published, your own timeline is more useful than testing the process against an invented fixed limit.

Related processes

Common questions