Amphetamine
Powerful keep-awake utility for macOS
Amphetamine launched on September 6, 2016 with 308 votes, #61 of 3,743 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 10 years on.
In plain words
Amphetamine is a macOS utility that prevents a computer from sleeping. Users can manually toggle the feature on and off, or set up automated triggers to keep the Mac awake based on specific conditions. The tool can keep either just the Mac active or both the Mac and its display awake. It operates from the menu bar for quick access and is designed for productivity workflows where uninterrupted operation is needed.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Welcome to Amphetamine, the most awesome keep-awake utility ever created for macOS. Amphetamine can keep your Mac, and optionally its display, awake through a super simple on/off switch, or automatically through easy-to-configure Triggers.
Download Amphetamine by William Gustafson on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Amphetamine.
UPDATE 2: Glad to see that Apple is no longer threatening to pull Amphetamine from the App Store on the absurd ground that it somehow encourages substance abuse. (Given that this has been one of the most popular utilities on the App Store for years, I suspect some junior Apple employee or intern got stuck working over the holidays without adequate supervision.) The developer, who has created this stellar utility and provides regular updates as an ongoing free gift to the Mac-using community (and to Apple), didn't deserve to be treated like this.UPDATE: I still love Amphetamine! I do have a very minor feature request—would it be possible to add a 90 minutes or 1.5 hours preset to the…from apps.apple.com
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Adrafinil – keep a lid-closed Mac awake only while agents workJun 2026 · github.com · ▲124A month ago there was a wave of posts and tweets about engineers walking around cafes and parks with their MacBooks propped half-open, as fully closing the lid forces sleep that stops their AI agents. Some people made snarky comments about using tmux or Amphetamine, and some defended their choice with “but I only need it sometimes, and forgetting to disable Amphetamine and finding my laptop discharged in my bag is worse.” This is a solution to this problem. Unlike caffeinate, it will prevent your MacBook from sleeping even with the lid closed, with no external power or display, using pmset…
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