The Best Mac Caffeine App
Stop builds, downloads and long Claude Code runs dying when your Mac falls asleep. Notchy adds a one-tap caffeine toggle to your MacBook notch, with a timer — and an option that keeps the Mac awake with the lid closed.
One-tap awake
No complex rules or triggers. When you need your Mac to stay awake for a large file download or a rendering task, just swipe down on the notch and tap the coffee cup icon.
The simpler Amphetamine app alternative
The Amphetamine app and Caffeine are great for keeping your Mac awake, but they clutter your menu bar. Notchy bundles a caffeine toggle into a complete suite of notch tools.
Awake with the lid closed
Close the laptop and walk away while a job finishes. “Stay Awake With the Lid Closed” in Settings → Caffeine changes the system power setting that normally puts a closed MacBook to sleep, so it asks for your password once.
Visual status
With a quick glance at the drop-down, you can see if your Mac is currently being forced awake, alongside your volume, brightness, and battery HUDs.
Native architecture
Notchy uses the native macOS `caffeinate` APIs under the hood, ensuring perfectly stable and system-safe operation without burning CPU cycles.
Everything Notchy does, in one app
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
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- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Custom islands through the local developer API (off by default)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Camera Guard — alert (or block) when any app opens your camera
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 134 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple silicon
Mac Caffeine App — FAQ
How do I keep my Mac awake with the lid closed?
Turn on “Stay Awake With the Lid Closed” in Notchy's Settings → Caffeine. It changes a system power setting, so macOS asks for your administrator password once. Normal Caffeine keeps the Mac awake with the lid open.
Can I keep my Mac awake while Claude Code or Codex runs?
Yes. Turn Caffeine on before you start a long agent run — until you stop it, or until a time you pick — and the Mac won't sleep halfway through. Add the lid-closed option if you walk away with the laptop shut.
Is there a terminal command to keep a Mac awake?
Yes: caffeinate, built into macOS. “caffeinate -d” keeps the display awake while it runs and “caffeinate -i” stops idle sleep; Ctrl-C ends it. Notchy's toggle does the same without a terminal window and shows on the notch that it's on.
How do I keep my Mac awake without changing system settings?
Instead of changing your macOS display sleep settings, you can use Notchy. Swipe down on the notch and tap the 'Caffeine' icon to instantly prevent your Mac from going to sleep.
Is there a simpler alternative to Amphetamine?
Yes. Amphetamine is a powerful app, but it adds another icon to your menu bar and can be overly complex. Notchy provides a simple one-tap caffeine toggle built directly into the notch drop-down.
Can I keep my Mac awake until a specific time?
Yes. Long-press the caffeine toggle to pick a duration — or an exact clock time, like 'until 6:30 PM'. Notchy keeps your Mac awake until then and switches off automatically so you never forget it on.
Does Notchy drain battery while keeping my Mac awake?
Notchy itself is extremely lightweight and uses near-zero CPU at idle. However, naturally, keeping your Mac’s screen forced on will consume more battery than letting it sleep.