Your Mac stays awake until you say so.

One click in the menu bar stops your Mac and its display from sleeping. Keep it on indefinitely or for a set time, then forget about it.

Download for Mac Free · Apple Silicon · macOS 15+

One switch. No fuss.

Awake lives quietly in your menu bar. It has no windows, needs no permissions and has no account to create.

Screen stays on

Presentations, dashboards, recipes and long reads: the display never dims while Awake is on.

Jobs keep running

Downloads, backups, builds and remote sessions finish without your Mac nodding off halfway.

Set a timer

Stay awake indefinitely, or pick 15 minutes up to 8 hours and Awake switches itself off.

Zero overhead

It uses the same mechanism as Apple's caffeinate command and uses no CPU while it runs.

Install in about a minute.

Awake is free and not sold through the App Store, so macOS asks you to confirm it once the first time.

  1. Download and drag to Applications

    Download Awake.dmg, open it, and drag the Awake icon onto the Applications folder.

  2. Open it for the first time

    Open Awake from your Applications folder. macOS will warn you that it can't verify the developer. This is normal for free apps distributed outside the App Store.

    Click Done, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.

  3. Click the cup

    Look for the cup icon in your menu bar near the clock. Choose Keep Awake to turn it on, or pick a duration. A filled cup means your Mac is staying awake.

Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) macOS 15 Sequoia or newer

Questions

The short answers.

Is it really free?

Yes. Awake is free and open source under the MIT license. There are no ads, accounts or in-app purchases.

Is it safe?

The full source code is public on GitHub, and every download is built automatically from that code. The app never connects to the internet, asks for no permissions and collects no data.

macOS shows a warning only because the app isn't registered with Apple's paid developer program.

Does it keep my MacBook awake with the lid closed?

Only when it's plugged into power and an external display, which is the standard clamshell mode. On battery, closing the lid always puts a Mac to sleep. That's a macOS rule that caffeinate follows too.

Will it drain my battery?

Awake itself uses no CPU while it runs. Your Mac uses more power simply because the screen stays on and it doesn't sleep. Use a timer if you only need a little while.

Can it turn on automatically?

Yes. Turn on Launch at Login. If Awake was on with Indefinitely when you quit or shut down, it turns itself back on the next time it starts.

How do I uninstall it?

Click the cup icon in the menu bar, choose Quit Awake, then drag Awake from Applications to the Trash.

I'm a developer. Can I install it from Terminal?

With Homebrew:

brew tap mpalarya/awake https://github.com/MPalarya/Awake brew trust mpalarya/awake brew install --cask awake

Or with curl:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MPalarya/Awake/main/install.sh | bash

Both methods skip the "unverified developer" warning. See the README for details and build instructions.