C# Thread Priority in Multithreading Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report In a multithreaded environment, each thread has a priority that determines how frequently the thread is allocated CPU resources by the operating system. The Thread.Priority property in C# is used to set or get the priority of a thread.A programmer can explicitly assign a priority to a thread using the Priority property.By default, a thread's priority is set to Normal.The operating system handles thread scheduling, but priorities influence how threads are executed.Setting priorities incorrectly can lead to thread starvation, where lower-priority threads may not get enough CPU time.A high-priority thread does not guarantee that it will execute before a low-priority thread because of context switching and other OS-level scheduling mechanisms.The thread priority always depends on the process priority (the parent container).Thread Priority LevelsThe ThreadPriority enum under the System.Threading namespace specifies the following priority levels:Priority LevelDescriptionValueHighestHighest priority for a thread.4AboveNormalHigher than Normal priority.3Normal (Default)Default priority.2BelowNormalLower than Normal priority.1LowestLowest priority for a thread.0Syntax:public ThreadPriority Priority{ get; set; }Exceptions:ThreadStateException: If the thread has reached a final state, such as Aborted.ArgumentException: If the value specified for a set operation is not a valid ThreadPriority value.Example 1: This example demonstrates how to set and get the priority of threads. C# // C# program to illustrate how to // set and get the priority of threads using System; using System.Threading; class Geeks { static public void Main() { // Creating and initializing threads Thread T1 = new Thread(work); Thread T2 = new Thread(work); Thread T3 = new Thread(work); // Set the priority of threads T2.Priority = ThreadPriority.Highest; T3.Priority = ThreadPriority.BelowNormal; T1.Start(); T2.Start(); T3.Start(); // Display the priority of threads Console.WriteLine("The priority of T1 is: {0}", T1.Priority); Console.WriteLine("The priority of T2 is: {0}", T2.Priority); Console.WriteLine("The priority of T3 is: {0}", T3.Priority); } public static void work() { // Sleep for 100 milliseconds Thread.Sleep(100); } } OutputThe priority of T1 is: Normal The priority of T2 is: Highest The priority of T3 is: BelowNormal Example 2: This example demonstrates how thread priority can influence thread execution. C# // C# program to illustrate the // Priority property of Thread class using System; using System.Threading; class Geeks { static public void Main() { // Creating and initializing threads Thread T1 = new Thread(work1); Thread T2 = new Thread(work2); // Set the priority of threads // Here T2 thread executes first // because the Priority of T2 is // highest as compare to T1 thread T1.Priority = ThreadPriority.Lowest; T2.Priority = ThreadPriority.Highest; T1.Start(); T2.Start(); } public static void work1() { Console.WriteLine("T1 thread is working.."); } public static void work2() { Console.WriteLine("T2 thread is working.."); } } OutputT1 thread is working.. T2 thread is working.. Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article How to Create Threads in C#? 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