Amphetamine
Keep your Mac awake
Amphetamine — Official Website
Quick Take: Amphetamine
Amphetamine is the best keep-awake utility for macOS—and it's free. The trigger system sets it apart from every competitor by automating session management based on real conditions (apps running, displays connected, Wi-Fi networks, battery levels). Power Protect and Drive Alive handle edge cases that simpler tools ignore. The only reason it doesn't get a 5/5 is that the trigger configuration interface has a learning curve. But once set up, you never think about it again. Every Mac user who has ever been frustrated by their computer sleeping during a download, build, or presentation should install Amphetamine.
Best For
- •Anyone Who Needs Their Mac to Stay Awake During Long Tasks
- •Desk Setup Users Who Run MacBooks in Clamshell Mode
- •Home Server and Media Server Operators
What is Amphetamine?
Amphetamine is a free keep-awake utility for macOS made by William Gustafson. It prevents your Mac from sleeping, dimming the screen, or starting the screen saver when you need it to stay on. Download a large file overnight? Start an Amphetamine session. Running a presentation? Start a session. Monitoring a long build? Session. What makes Amphetamine better than the built-in caffeinate command or the old Caffeine app is its trigger system. Instead of just toggling sleep on or off, Amphetamine can automatically keep your Mac awake based on conditions: when a specific app is running, when connected to a particular Wi-Fi network, when an external display is connected, when battery is above a threshold, when a file is being downloaded, or based on time schedules. You set up triggers once and forget about them. Amphetamine also handles the edge cases that simpler tools miss. It can keep your Mac awake while the display sleeps (useful for media servers and downloads), prevent sleep when the lid is closed with an external display (closed-display mode), and protect against accidental sleep during critical operations. The 'Power Protect' feature automatically ends sessions if battery drops below a safe level, preventing your Mac from dying mid-task. The app sits in your menu bar as a pill icon (filled when active, empty when inactive). It's been on the Mac App Store since 2014, has a 4.9-star rating, and is one of the most recommended utilities in the Mac community. Despite the name (which Apple briefly objected to before allowing it to remain), it's a straightforward, well-designed tool that does exactly what it says. Amphetamine is completely free with no in-app purchases, no ads, and no data collection. The developer maintains it as a passion project and provides support through a dedicated website and community. It's one of those rare Mac utilities that's genuinely perfect at its specific job.
Install with Homebrew
brew install --cask amphetamineDeep Dive: Mac Sleep Prevention — Why It's Harder Than It Sounds
The technical challenges of keeping a Mac awake and how Amphetamine handles them.
History & Background
The original Caffeine app (by Lighthead Software) was the first popular keep-awake utility for Mac, launching around 2006. It was a simple toggle—click the coffee cup icon to prevent sleep. When Caffeine was abandoned, KeepingYouAwake emerged as an open-source replacement. Amphetamine launched in 2014 with a more ambitious feature set, adding triggers, display sleep control, and Power Protect. Over the following decade, it became the community standard for Mac sleep management.
How It Works
macOS manages sleep through the IOPMlib framework and power assertions. An app prevents sleep by creating a power assertion (kIOPMAssertionTypeNoIdleSleep or kIOPMAssertionTypeNoDisplaySleep). The assertion must be maintained continuously—if the app crashes or is force-quit, the assertion drops and the Mac can sleep again. Amphetamine maintains these assertions and monitors system state (battery level, connected devices, running apps) to decide when to hold or release them. The Drive Alive feature uses FSEventStream to detect drive activity and periodic file writes to prevent drive spindown.
Ecosystem & Integrations
Keep-awake utilities are a small but important category in Mac system tools. The alternatives range from caffeinate (built-in command line), KeepingYouAwake (simple GUI toggle), Lungo (paid, moderate features), to Amphetamine (free, full-featured). For server-like use cases (always-on Mac mini), launchd service configuration is the most reliable approach—but Amphetamine's trigger system provides similar functionality with an accessible GUI.
Future Development
The developer has indicated plans for continued macOS compatibility updates, Shortcuts integration for automation workflows, and potential Automator/Shortcuts actions for trigger management. The app's feature set is mature—future development focuses on compatibility, stability, and integration with Apple's expanding automation frameworks.
Key Features
Session Types
Amphetamine supports timed sessions (keep awake for 30 minutes, 2 hours, custom duration), indefinite sessions (stay awake until manually ended), and triggered sessions (automatically activate based on conditions). You can also set sessions to end when a specific app closes—start a session while Handbrake is encoding, and it ends automatically when Handbrake finishes. The menu bar icon shows an active/inactive state, and you can configure what each session type prevents: system sleep, display sleep, or screen saver.
Custom Triggers
Triggers are conditions that automatically start or end sessions. Available trigger conditions include: specific app is running, connected to a named Wi-Fi network, external display connected, battery level above/below a threshold, specific USB device connected, power adapter connected/disconnected, Bluetooth device in range, IP address range, and time/day schedules. Triggers can combine conditions with AND/OR logic. Example: keep awake when connected to 'Office Wi-Fi' AND an external display is connected, but only on weekdays between 9 AM and 6 PM.
Allow Display Sleep
Most keep-awake tools prevent both system sleep and display sleep. Amphetamine lets you allow the display to sleep while keeping the system running. This is important for overnight tasks—downloading large files, running Time Machine backups, seeding torrents, or hosting a Plex server. The display turns off to save energy and reduce wear on the panel, but the Mac stays fully operational. This distinction matters for OLED displays where burn-in is a concern.
Closed-Display Mode
MacBooks normally sleep when you close the lid. Amphetamine can keep the system running with the lid closed when an external display, keyboard, and mouse/trackpad are connected (Apple's closed clamshell mode requirements). This is essential for desk setups where the MacBook lives in a vertical stand. Amphetamine ensures the system stays awake reliably in this configuration, something that macOS occasionally fails to do on its own.
Power Protect
Running an indefinite session on battery can drain your MacBook completely. Power Protect monitors battery level during sessions and automatically ends the session (allowing sleep) when battery drops below a configurable threshold (default: 10%). This prevents data loss from unexpected shutdown. You can also set it to warn you before ending the session, giving you time to save work or plug in.
Drive Alive
External drives sometimes eject or go to sleep when the Mac tries to sleep, which can corrupt data during transfers or Time Machine backups. Drive Alive periodically writes a tiny file to selected drives to keep them active during Amphetamine sessions. This prevents the drives from spinning down or disconnecting during long operations.
Who Should Use Amphetamine?
1Developer Running Long Builds
A developer kicks off a build or test suite that takes 45 minutes. They set a 1-hour Amphetamine session so the Mac doesn't sleep mid-compile. Alternatively, they create a trigger that activates when Xcode or Terminal is running a process, automatically keeping the Mac awake during any build or test run. Power Protect ensures the MacBook won't die if they're on battery.
2Home Office With Desk Setup
An employee uses a MacBook Pro with a Thunderbolt dock, ultrawide monitor, and mechanical keyboard. The MacBook sits in a CalDigit dock with the lid closed. Amphetamine's closed-display mode trigger activates when the external display is connected, keeping the system running reliably with the lid shut. Display sleep is allowed after 15 minutes of inactivity to save energy.
3Media Server Operator
Someone runs Plex or Jellyfin on a Mac mini as a home media server. An Amphetamine trigger keeps the system awake 24/7 while allowing the connected display (if any) to sleep. Drive Alive keeps the external media drives from ejecting. If power fails and the Mac restarts, Amphetamine's launch-at-login and auto-trigger settings resume the session automatically.
How to Install Amphetamine on Mac
Amphetamine is available from the Mac App Store or via Homebrew.
Install via Homebrew
Run `brew install --cask amphetamine`. Alternatively, search for 'Amphetamine' in the Mac App Store—it's a free download.
Launch and Configure
Open Amphetamine. The pill icon appears in your menu bar. Click it to start a quick session, or right-click for session options (timed, indefinite, triggered).
Set Up Triggers
Open Preferences > Triggers to create automatic sessions. Start with common scenarios: 'external display connected' for desk mode, or 'specific app running' for long tasks.
Enable Launch at Login
Preferences > General > Launch at Login. If you depend on triggers for desk mode or server use, Amphetamine needs to be running to work.
Pro Tips
- • Use the keyboard shortcut (configurable in Preferences > General) for quick session toggling without touching the mouse.
- • Right-click the menu bar icon for the full session menu—left-click toggles the default session type.
- • If you use the built-in `caffeinate` command for scripts, Amphetamine can coexist—they don't conflict.
Configuration Tips
Create a Desk Mode Trigger
New Trigger > Condition: External Display Connected. Allow Display Sleep: After 15 minutes. This keeps your Mac running at the desk while turning off the display after inactivity. Add a second condition for your office Wi-Fi name to make it location-specific.
Set Up App-Based Triggers
New Trigger > Condition: App Running > select Handbrake, Xcode, or any app that runs long tasks. The session starts when the app launches and ends when it quits. This eliminates the need to manually start sessions before builds or encodes.
Alternatives to Amphetamine
Several utilities prevent Mac sleep, from minimal to full-featured.
Caffeine / KeepingYouAwake
KeepingYouAwake is the spiritual successor to the classic Caffeine app. It's a simple menu bar toggle—click to prevent sleep, click again to allow it. No triggers, no conditional logic, no display sleep options. If you just need a quick on/off switch, KeepingYouAwake is simpler. If you want automation and conditions, Amphetamine is the better choice.
caffeinate (built-in)
macOS includes the `caffeinate` command-line tool. Run `caffeinate -d` to prevent display sleep, or `caffeinate -i -t 3600` to prevent idle sleep for an hour. It's perfect for scripting and one-off use. Amphetamine provides the same functionality with a GUI, persistent sessions, and trigger automation.
Lungo
Lungo is a paid keep-awake utility ($9.99) with a clean interface and basic trigger support. It's a good middle ground between KeepingYouAwake's simplicity and Amphetamine's full feature set. Since Amphetamine is free and more capable, Lungo's main advantage is its slightly more polished interface.
Pricing
Amphetamine is completely free on the Mac App Store. No in-app purchases, no premium tier, no subscription, no ads. The developer accepts donations through the app's website but the full feature set is available to everyone at no cost.
Pros
- ✓Completely free with no ads or in-app purchases
- ✓Trigger system automates keep-awake based on conditions
- ✓Allow Display Sleep option saves energy during overnight tasks
- ✓Power Protect prevents battery drain to unsafe levels
- ✓Drive Alive keeps external drives from ejecting during sessions
- ✓4.9-star rating on the Mac App Store with years of active development
- ✓Closed-display mode works reliably for clamshell desk setups
Cons
- ✗Only available on macOS — no cross-platform version
- ✗Trigger setup has a learning curve for complex condition combinations
- ✗The name has occasionally caused confusion or App Store policy concerns
- ✗Menu bar icon is subtle — easy to forget whether a session is active
- ✗Requires launch-at-login for triggers to work automatically
Community & Support
Amphetamine has a dedicated website (amphetamine.app) maintained by the developer, William Gustafson. The site includes detailed documentation, FAQs, and a contact form for support. The app's Mac App Store page has thousands of reviews averaging 4.9 stars. Reddit's r/mac and r/macapps communities frequently recommend Amphetamine as the go-to keep-awake utility. The developer is responsive to App Store reviews and email support requests. Since 2014, Amphetamine has been continuously updated for new macOS versions, and the developer has publicly committed to maintaining it as long as macOS supports it.
Video Tutorials
Getting Started with Amphetamine
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Frequently Asked Questions about Amphetamine
Our Verdict
Amphetamine is the best keep-awake utility for macOS—and it's free. The trigger system sets it apart from every competitor by automating session management based on real conditions (apps running, displays connected, Wi-Fi networks, battery levels). Power Protect and Drive Alive handle edge cases that simpler tools ignore. The only reason it doesn't get a 5/5 is that the trigger configuration interface has a learning curve. But once set up, you never think about it again. Every Mac user who has ever been frustrated by their computer sleeping during a download, build, or presentation should install Amphetamine.
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Productivity & Workflow Analyst
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Fact-CheckedLast verified: Feb 23, 2026
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