<p>Is kubectl top the current memory / CPU value or is it an average of a certain time period ?</p>

<p>It's the actual usage of the pods and nodes at the moment you issue the command.</p>

<p>Example:</p>

<pre><code>$ kubectl top nodes
NAME                                         CPU(cores)   CPU%   MEMORY(bytes)   MEMORY%
ip-xxx-xx-x-xxx.us-west-2.compute.internal   62m          6%     1014Mi          27%
</code></pre>

<p>Using 62 milicores(0.062 cores), 6% of the CPUs, 1014 Mebybites and 24% of the memory at the moment the API returned.</p>

<p>You can also find more information <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/45206488/2989261">here</a>.</p>
