Amphetamine
Prevents sleep — optionally until a condition stops being true, rather than until you remember to turn it off.
What it does
Amphetamine keeps the Mac, and optionally its displays, awake. What distinguishes it from caffeinate is Triggers: sessions that start and end on conditions rather than manually.
- While a specific app is running, or is frontmost.
- While a drive is mounted, or a display is connected.
- While on a named Wi-Fi network, or on AC power.
- While CPU or network activity is above a threshold.
- For a duration, or until a time.
Closed-display mode keeps a laptop working with the lid shut and no external display attached.
Notes
Free on the App Store, and sandboxed as a consequence — which is why Amphetamine Enhancer exists. The command-line equivalent for a single job is caffeinate -dimsu -t 3600.
Alternative to
| Alternative | Type | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
caffeinate | Built in | Built into macOS: caffeinate -dimsu -t 3600 and nothing to install |
| KeepingYouAwake | Open source | A menu bar toggle over caffeinate |
| Lungo or Theine | Freemium | The same toggle, App Store, paid or free |
Install
Amphetamine on the Mac App Store
Or with mas:
mas install 937984704