Kitsmith / Utilities / Amphetamine
A free keep-awake utility — a one-click toggle or automatic Triggers stop your Mac (and optionally its display) from sleeping, with power-user depth most caffeine-style apps skip.
Our take
The best-known keep-awake utility on the Mac App Store, and free where most competitors in this category charge a few dollars — built and still actively maintained by a single developer, William Gustafson, since 2014, and featured editorially by Apple itself (“Customize Your Mac’s Sleep Settings — Amphetamine gives you granular control”). Beyond the simple on/off menu bar toggle, Triggers can start a keep-awake session automatically on conditions like a specific app launching, an external display connecting, or battery staying above a threshold — more configuration than most people need, but there for the people who do. The developer also maintains a public GitHub repo of extra fixes for edge cases Apple’s own sandboxing makes awkward, like Closed-Display Mode losing state on Apple Silicon Macs after a power change.
- Price
- Free
- License
- Proprietary
- Requires
- macOS 10.13 or later, per the Mac App Store listing.
- Get it via
- Mac App Store
- Developer
- William Gustafson
Do you use Amphetamine?
Who made this
William Gustafson’s own GitHub and LinkedIn credit him as a macOS developer who also works in IT at Harvard University; his wider portfolio beyond Amphetamine includes Toothpicks, Altunenator, and Browserism. In 2019 he published his own account of a branding dispute with Apple’s App Store review team directly on GitHub, later covered by Gizmodo.
What it does
Triggers
Start a keep-awake session automatically on conditions like an app launching, a display connecting, or battery level, rather than only a manual toggle.
Keeps the display awake too, optionally
Choose whether Amphetamine keeps just the Mac awake or the display as well, per session.
Actively maintained since 2014
Regular updates from a single named developer, plus a public GitHub repo of extra fixes for Apple-sandboxing edge cases like Closed-Display Mode on Apple Silicon.
The deal
- Free
- No in-app purchases or subscription
Amphetamine — questions people ask
Is Amphetamine free?
Yes — free with no in-app purchases or subscription, per its Mac App Store listing.
Who makes Amphetamine?
William Gustafson, an independent developer who has maintained the app since 2014.
Does Amphetamine keep the display on too, or just the Mac?
Both are options — a session can keep just the Mac awake, or the Mac and its display, depending on how you start it.
Is Amphetamine free?
Yes — Amphetamine is free.
Does Amphetamine work alongside a notch app like Alcove?
Yes — Amphetamine lives in the menu bar, so it runs happily alongside any Dynamic Island hub or notch app.
Where can I download Amphetamine?
Amphetamine is available via Mac App Store.
Reviews
No public ratings yet. Reader reviews are coming to Kitsmith soon.
Listing hand-verified August 29, 2026 from the developer's site and public sources.
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