With rising hardware prices, software efficiency matters more than ever. Caffeine uses <20 MB of RAM and ~0% CPU. It runs flawlessly on every Mac from 2012 to 2026.
Whether you’re reading a long article, downloading a large file, listening to music, watching a video, or maybe even rendering a video—sometimes you want your Mac to not display the screensaver or go to sleep. Caffeine offers you exactly that—and not much else.
No ads. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No user tracking. No “analytics,” “telemetry,” “data collection,” “product improvement”—or any other euphemism for surveillance. Just a tiny, single-purpose utility that runs locally, on your hardware. You buy it once—you own it.
Caffeine inherits the open-sourced code from the well-known 2000s-era application but adds the modern security and performance on top of it. Today’s Caffeine is written in Swift—the fast, safe, and modern programming language—and is fully optimized for both Intel and Apple silicon (M-series) chips. It features support for the Dark Mode, high-resolution Retina displays, App Sandbox, Hardened Runtime, and more—all while retaining the same low resource footprint: Caffeine takes about 8 MB on the disk and uses under 20 MB of RAM in total (that’s less than an empty browser tab). It’s hard to believe such a tiny app can be improved that much. Download, launch, and enjoy!
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Caffiene is the original and still works great
Scott Fainstein
I don't understand the bad review or why reviewers of other similar apps are posting negative reviews of caffiene. I never write reviews btw but I felt compelled to do so as I tried out a similar app based on one of those negative reviews and that app was so complicated. So I tried out Caffiene again on this new MBP and it works just like it has always worked and it's just a click of the icon. Simple. Thank you developers of Caffiene!
Developer Response
Hi Scott! Thanks for your feedback!The original Caffeine app was last updated in 2010, and because of that, it fell victim to “software rot”—it’s when the app gets too old and no longer works properly with modern macOS versions. I was a Caffeine user myself, so I can understand the frustration others write about in their reviews. When I learned that the original developer had open-sourced the Caffeine code for everybody to reuse and enjoy, I decided to rescue the beloved app while keeping its simplicity. This is the fixed and modernized version, and I’m happy that you like the results!
Saves my rear end on a daily basis
quantumonion
For security, our company enforces the screen saver to lock after 5 minutes (we can change this on a per-use basis to 30 minutes, but the setting is forced back to 5 minutes afterward).Due to this aggressive security stance, I've needed to wiggle the mouse, etc, to keep my Mac awake while recording "proof of concept" videos. These videos invariably last longer than 30 minutes. WIthout Caffiene, I'd need to be glued to my desk (at home, where security is not so much an issue) to ensure the Mac stays awake for the duration.In short, Caffiene is a godsend for me just based on its functionality. The fact that it's small and perfectly designed is icing on the cake!Thank you to the developer for keeping this lovely utility alive!
Developer Response
Thank you for using it!
Should be part of the OS!
Frobisher
Now it’s a paid app I’m happy to pay for it. I have used Caffeine for years to keep PowerPoint awake without having to mess with settings. Now I’m retired, but today the MacBook is doing file copying that wants to stall when it sleeps, so back to the old tried-and-true! It’s even got timers now.
true to the original spirit
jes5199
There are a million clones of the old Caffeine app, but only this one has the most important feature that I have missed from the old days: the little squiggles showing you that the coffee is hot.
Developer Response
The detail is everything :) Thank you!
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements
Version 3.5.0
The developer, Yakov Manshin, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
