Wakr
No Account Required · Free for Personal Use
Keep Your Mac Awake.
For Exactly As Long As You Say.
Click the menu bar icon, pick a duration, and Wakr holds your Mac awake — no idle sleep, no display sleep, no screen saver — using the same power-management assertions as caffeinate. Turn it off, or let the timer run out, and your Mac goes right back to normal.
v1.2.1 · macOS 14+, including 27 Golden Gate · Apple Silicon & Intel · Signed & notarized by Apple · No account
How it works
Three clicks, then forget about it.
Click the menu bar icon
Wakr lives quietly in your menu bar — no dock icon, no window to manage. Click the sun or moon glyph any time.
Pick a duration
15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, or "Until Wakr Quits." Or type your own length, name a time to stay awake until, or tie the session to an app you're waiting on.
Your Mac stays awake
No idle sleep, no display sleep, no screen saver. The icon flips to a sun and a live countdown shows exactly how much time is left.
Features
Small utility, done right.
One glyph in your menu bar, exactly the controls you need — nothing else running, nothing ever sent anywhere.
Lives in your menu bar
No dock icon, no Cmd+Tab entry, no window to manage. Click the icon, pick a duration, done.
Duration presets
15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, or indefinitely until you turn it off or quit — pick a new one any time to restart the clock.
Any length you like
Type the minutes, or a length like 1h30m. Or name a time instead — "23:30" or "7:30 AM" — and Wakr stays awake until then, rolling to tomorrow if that time has already gone by today.
Add time without restarting
Running short? Add 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour to the session you're already in. Your Mac never gets a moment where it's free to sleep.
Let the screen go dark
"Allow the Display to Sleep" keeps the system up while the screen turns off — the setting you want for an overnight download or render on a laptop. Switch it mid-session and the session carries on.
Wait on an app, not a clock
Pick a running app and Wakr holds your Mac awake for exactly as long as it's open — then turns off by itself the moment it quits. No guessing how long the export will take.
Won't flatten your laptop
Turn on the battery guard and a forgotten session ends itself once the charge drops below 20% — but only on battery, never while you're plugged in.
See the state at a glance
A sun while a session is active, a crescent moon once your Mac is free to sleep again — no guessing whether it's running.
Live countdown
Timed sessions show a running countdown right next to the icon, so you always know how much time is left without opening the menu.
Launch at Login
Toggle "Launch Wakr at Login" once, and it's ready in your menu bar every time you start your Mac — and if you'd rather it start awake, "Stay Awake When Wakr Starts" does that too.
Built for everyone
The entire menu is a native NSMenu, so VoiceOver reads it and the keyboard drives it without Wakr doing anything special. The status icon carries an explicit accessibility label as well — the sun/moon glyph has no text of its own — and that label names the mode you are in, including the app a session is tied to.
Native NSMenu
Lightweight & native
A thin wrapper over the same power-management assertions macOS itself uses — no background bloat, no menu-bar clutter beyond the one glyph.
No telemetry, no tracking
Your keep-awake sessions never touch the network. No account, no analytics — the only calls Wakr makes are an optional weekly update check and, if you activate a business license, a daily check that the key is still valid.
No account required
Speaks your language
Wakr's menu comes in 13 languages and auto-detects your Mac's language automatically — switch anytime from the Language submenu.
13 languages
Light or dark, to match your Mac
Every menu, prompt and alert is native, so Wakr follows your Mac's appearance the moment you switch it — and the icon in Finder has its own light and dark artwork rather than one drawing that only suits half the year.
Durations
15 Minutes
30 Minutes
1 Hour
4 Hours
Until Wakr Quits
Any Length You Type
Until a Specific Time
While an App Is Running
Pricing
Free for you. Fair for work.
Personal use is free forever — every duration, no key, no account, no watermarks. If Wakr earns its keep at your job, a one-time business license keeps it supported.
Personal
Free forever
For individuals and personal projects
- Every duration — presets, any length you type, or until a set time
- Stay awake while an app is running
- Live state icon + countdown
- Launch at Login
- Fully VoiceOver accessible
- No account, no nag screens
- Free updates forever
Business
$5 / computer
One-time payment — no subscription
- Everything in Personal
- Use commercially at work
- One-time payment — no subscription
- Free updates forever
- Supports solo indie development
The personal tier is the full app — buy a business license only if you use Wakr commercially. One seat per computer, paid once, yours for life. Secure checkout via Stripe; your receipt is emailed instantly.
Download & install
Get set up in seconds.
Download the app and drag it into Applications — that's it. No Terminal, no Homebrew, no sign-up.
Version 1.2.1 · Released August 22, 2026 · Free updates forever
macOS 14 Sonoma or later, including macOS 27 Golden Gate · Apple Silicon or Intel
Everything Wakr needs — including its Launch at Login helper — is built right into the app. Nothing else to install.
Opens with a double-click
Wakr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens cleanly the first time — no
Open Anyway trip through System Settings, no Terminal. Open the DMG, drag Wakr into Applications, and launch it.Check the file you downloaded
Wakr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, and macOS checks that every time you open it — that is the check that catches a file altered on its way to you. To confirm it yourself, compare the SHA-256 of your copy with the one published for the
Wakr.dmg this page serves.SHA-256 checksum
Published checksum
Run this on your download and compare
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Wakr.dmg
Or have your Mac compare them for you: save Wakr.dmg.sha256 beside the download and run shasum -a 256 -c Wakr.dmg.sha256.
FAQ
Common questions.
Is Wakr really free?
Personal use is free forever — every duration, no account, no trial timer, no watermarks. If you use Wakr at work, a one-time $5 business license per computer keeps it supported.
How does the business license work?
If you use Wakr commercially, buy a one-time $5 license per computer from the pricing section — secure checkout via Stripe. The personal tier is the full app with no nag screens, so you can evaluate it freely first.
Does Wakr upload anything?
Your keep-awake sessions never touch the network. Wakr makes two narrowly-scoped calls and no others: a weekly check-for-updates ping (on by default — turn it off any time from the menu), and, only if you have activated a business license key, a check about once a day that the key is still valid. Personal use never makes that second call. No telemetry, no tracking, no account — the privacy policy spells out exactly what each request carries.
Will macOS warn me about an unidentified developer?
No. Wakr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click the first time — no Open Anyway dance, no Terminal.
How do I update Wakr?
Wakr updates itself. It checks about once a week and, when a new version is out, shows you what changed and offers to install it in place — the download is signature-checked, and one that doesn't verify is refused. You can also check on demand, turn the automatic check off from the Wakr menu, or download the DMG from this page and drag it into Applications yourself. Your Launch at Login setting carries over.
What does "Until Wakr Quits" mean?
Wakr keeps your Mac awake indefinitely — no fixed timer — until you click Turn Off — Let Mac Sleep, quit Wakr, or your Mac restarts.
Can I keep my Mac awake but let the screen turn off?
Yes — turn on Allow the Display to Sleep. The system stays up so a download, render or backup keeps running, while the screen is free to go dark and save power. Turn it on or off mid-session and the session carries straight on.
Is there a Windows version?
Not yet — Wakr is Mac-only for now. It's built as a native menu bar app from the ground up.