What Is My Screen Resolution? How to Check It on Windows, Mac, and in the Browser

You opened Display settings looking for “how many inches is my screen” and found 1920 × 1080 instead. Or you searched “what is my screen resolution,” got a wall of 4K marketing pages, and still do not know what your panel is running.

Screen resolution is the pixel grid: width × height. It is not diagonal inches, not refresh rate, and not the size of your browser window.

Here is how to read that number on Windows, Mac, a phone, and in the browser, plus the traps that make the number look “wrong” when scaling or Retina displays are involved.

What screen resolution means

Resolution counts how many pixels make up the image, written as width × height.

• 1920 × 1080 means 1,920 pixels across and 1,080 pixels down (Full HD / 1080p).
• 2560 × 1440 is 1440p / QHD.
• 3840 × 2160 is 4K UHD.

More pixels on the same physical size means higher pixel density (PPI) and sharper text. More pixels on a bigger panel can still look soft if PPI drops.

Resolution answers: “How many dots are in the grid?”
Screen size answers: “How long is the diagonal in inches?”

If you need inches, measure the panel or use the Monitor Size Checker. For the how-to, see how to measure monitor size.

Fastest way: check screen resolution online

Open the free screen resolution checker. It reads screen.width and screen.height from your browser and shows the live values without installing anything.

Use this when:

• You are on a locked-down work PC and do not want to dig through settings
• You need a quick readout to paste into a support ticket
• You want resolution next to viewport and DPR in one place

Limitation you should know: browsers report CSS pixels (logical pixels), not always the panel’s native physical pixel count. On a Retina MacBook or a phone with devicePixelRatio of 2 or 3, physical pixels ≈ CSS pixels × DPR. The checker surfaces that distinction. For the developer deep dive, see viewport vs screen width vs DPR.

How to check screen resolution on Windows

Works on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

1. Right-click the desktop → Display settings.
2. Scroll to Display resolution (Windows 10) or look under Scale & layout → Display resolution (Windows 11).
3. The selected value is what Windows is driving right now (for example 1920 × 1080).
4. The entry marked (Recommended) is usually the panel’s native resolution. Prefer that unless you have a specific reason to run lower.

Multiple monitors: Use the display diagram at the top of Display settings. Click the monitor you care about, then read its resolution. Each screen can be different.

If the list looks short: the cable, GPU, or adapter may be capping the signal. A DisplayPort or HDMI handshake problem often shows up as “only 1920 × 1080 available” on a 1440p or 4K panel. Cable context: HDMI vs DisplayPort vs USB-C.

Want to change the value, not just read it? Use change screen resolution on Windows 10.

How to check screen resolution on Mac

Apple hides the raw pixel numbers more than Windows does, especially on Retina displays.

1. Open System Settings → Displays.
2. Select the display (Built-in Retina Display, or an external monitor).
3. Note the selected resolution mode. On many Macs you see labels like Default, More Space, or scaled point sizes rather than a plain 2880 × 1800 list.
4. For the exact pixel mode: hold Option while clicking Scaled (wording varies by macOS version) to reveal more resolution choices, or check About This Mac → Displays / System Report for the native panel resolution.

Retina trap: A 14-inch MacBook Pro might run a logical UI around 1512 × 982 points while the panel is 3024 × 1964 physical pixels at 2×. Both numbers are “real.” One is how macOS lays out the UI. The other is the panel hardware. If a website or game asks for “your resolution,” clarify whether they mean logical or native.

Step-by-step for changing modes: change screen resolution on Mac.

How to check screen resolution on a phone

Phones rarely show “1920 × 1080” in a friendly Settings tile the way desktop OSes do.

Practical options:

• Open the resolution checker in mobile Safari or Chrome. You will see CSS width × height and DPR.
• Look up the model’s manufacturer specs (or a device page in our device database) for the native panel resolution.
• On Android, some phones bury it under Settings → About phone → Display, or in developer options. It is inconsistent by OEM.

Physical pixel width on phones is often CSS width × DPR. Example: a logical viewport of 393 CSS px wide at DPR 3 is about 1,179 physical pixels across. That is why phone marketing resolutions look huge next to the numbers web developers use for breakpoints. More on that in mobile screen sizes.

How to check screen resolution in the browser (DevTools and JavaScript)

For developers and anyone who lives in Chrome:

1. Open DevTools (F12 or Cmd+Option+I / Ctrl+Shift+I).
2. Open the Console.
3. Run:

console.log({
  screen: `${screen.width}×${screen.height}`,
  avail: `${screen.availWidth}×${screen.availHeight}`,
  viewport: `${window.innerWidth}×${window.innerHeight}`,
  dpr: window.devicePixelRatio,
  approxPhysical: `${Math.round(screen.width * devicePixelRatio)}×${Math.round(screen.height * devicePixelRatio)}`,
});

Value	What it tells you
screen.width × screen.height	Display size in CSS pixels
window.innerWidth × innerHeight	Browser viewport (layout area)
devicePixelRatio	Physical pixels per CSS pixel
CSS × DPR	Approximate native pixel grid

Do not use innerWidth when someone asks for monitor resolution. A half-maximized window reports the viewport, not the panel. Use screen.* or OS Display settings for the display itself.

Copy-paste variants and when to use each API: viewport width vs screen width vs DPR. Live viewport only: what is my viewport. DPR only: device pixel ratio checker.

Resolution vs size vs viewport: stop mixing the three

People type “what is my screen resolution” when they mean three different things.

Resolution (pixels): 2560 × 1440. Grid density for the OS and GPU.
Size (inches): 27-inch diagonal. Physical panel.
Viewport (CSS px): How wide the browser content area is right now.

A 27-inch 1440p monitor and a 27-inch 4K monitor are the same size and very different resolutions. A maximized browser on that 1440p panel might show a viewport of ~2560 × 1400 after subtracting the taskbar and window chrome, which is still not “screen size in inches.”

For buying context (which resolution fits which diagonal), see display resolutions explained and most common screen resolutions.

Common resolutions you will actually see

Label	Pixels	Typical use
HD / 720p	1280 × 720	Older laptops, small secondary screens
Full HD / 1080p	1920 × 1080	24-inch office monitors, many laptops
1440p / QHD	2560 × 1440	27-inch productivity and gaming
Ultrawide QHD	3440 × 1440	34-inch ultrawides
4K / UHD	3840 × 2160	27–32 inch sharp text, large panels
Phone logical	~360–430 × ~700–900	CSS viewport widths (not marketing pixels)

If Windows shows something odd like 1536 × 864, you are often on a 1920 × 1080 panel with 125% or 150% scaling, and some apps report the scaled logical size. Check Scale next to resolution in Display settings. The recommended resolution can still be 1920 × 1080 while the UI is enlarged.

FAQ: finding your screen resolution

What is my screen resolution in simple terms?

It is how many pixels wide and tall your display is, written as width × height (for example 1920 × 1080). It is not the diagonal size in inches.

How do I check my screen resolution quickly?

Use the screen resolution checker, or open Display settings on Windows / Displays on Mac and read the selected resolution.

Why does my browser show a different resolution than Windows?

Browsers report CSS pixels. OS scaling, browser zoom, and devicePixelRatio change how those relate to native panel pixels. Compare screen, viewport, and DPR side by side in the checker.

Is 1920×1080 the same as 1080p?

Yes for standard 16:9 Full HD. The “1080” is the vertical pixel count. 2560×1440 is 1440p. 3840×2160 is 4K UHD.

Can I find resolution without Display settings?

Yes. Use the online checker, run the JavaScript snippet above in DevTools, or look up your monitor/laptop model’s native resolution on the manufacturer sheet.

Read the pixel grid, then decide what you needed

If support asked for your resolution, send the Display settings value or a screenshot of the resolution checker. If you actually wanted inches, stop using the pixel number and measure the diagonal instead.

Once you know both resolution and size, PPI stops being a mystery: run them through the PPI calculator, or browse which resolutions are common in 2026 before you buy the next panel.