Wakr
Menu bar utility for macOSNo accountFree, including commercial use
Keep your Mac awake. 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. It uses the same power-management assertions as caffeinate, so turning it off puts your Mac straight back to normal.
v1.3.2 · macOS 13+, including 27 Golden Gate · Apple Silicon & Intel · Signed & notarized by Apple · No account
01 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.
02 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.
A closed lid, held
Plugged in, Wakr keeps the session running when you close the lid, so a download or a render survives the walk to another desk. On battery macOS sleeps on a lid close whatever any app asks for, and Wakr says that is what happened rather than leaving you to guess.
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 usage analytics, no tracking
Your keep-awake sessions never touch the network. No account, no usage analytics. The only call Wakr makes is an optional weekly update check.
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.
The lengths you type come back
A preset is one click, but "1h30m" and "23:30" cost typing, and whoever wants one of those usually wants it again tomorrow. The last three are offered back and the prompt opens filled in with the most recent. Wakr stores the text you typed rather than the seconds it came to, so a saved "23:30" still means half past eleven tonight.
03 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
05 Pricing
Free. For everyone.
Wakr is free for everyone, at home and at work. No license, no account, no nag screens, no watermarks, ever.
Personal
Free forever
For individuals and personal projects
- The full app, every feature
- No account, no nag screens
- Free updates forever
At work
Free commercial too
No license, no subscription
- Everything in Personal
- Use it commercially at work, free
- No license to buy, ever
- Free updates forever
Wakr is free for everyone, including commercial use at work. There is no license to buy and no subscription. The same app runs on the Mac and Windows builds.
06 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 1.3.2 · Released September 28, 2026 · Free updates forever
macOS 13 Ventura 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, with 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.
07 FAQ
Common questions.
Is Wakr really free?
Personal use is free forever: every duration, no account, no trial timer, no watermarks. It is free for commercial use at work too, with no license to buy and no account.
Does Wakr upload anything?
Your keep-awake sessions never touch the network. Wakr makes one narrowly-scoped call and no others: a weekly check-for-updates ping (on by default, turn it off any time from the menu). No usage analytics, 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?
Not any more. Wakr had an Allow the Display to Sleep switch until 1.3.0, and it was removed: on a Mac with a password delay set, a display that goes to sleep locks the Mac a few seconds later, so the setting quietly traded a dark screen for being locked out of the session you were watching. Wakr now holds the display, the screen saver and the system awake together, for as long as the session lasts.
Is there a Windows version?
Yes, in beta. Wakr for Windows runs on Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11, 64-bit, and installs without admin rights.