Keep your Mac awake.

On your terms.

A tiny menu bar utility for macOS that prevents your Mac from sleeping while you're working, presenting, downloading, or rendering. No Dock icon. No clutter.

Download on the Mac App Store See how it works

v1.0 · macOS 26+ · ~10 MB · Free

Click the toggles, pick a duration, hit start.

Why this exists

Long Xcode builds. Overnight renders. A presentation that mustn't dim. A 50 GB sync. An AI agent working unattended for hours. macOS goes to sleep when you stop typing — and that's usually fine, except when it isn't.

Tostato gives you four small switches and a timer. Pick what to keep awake, pick how long, walk away. When time runs out, Tostato stops on its own.

What you get

  • Four protections

    Display awake, no idle sleep, screensaver suppression, or AC-only. Mix and match. Each enforced independently.

  • Six durations

    1, 2, 4, 8, 12 hours, or indefinite. A live countdown shows what's left. When it hits zero, Tostato stops.

  • Live countdown

    In the popover, and optionally in the menu bar itself. Glanceable, never noisy.

  • Battery-aware

    Pauses automatically on battery when AC-only is part of your selection. Plug back in and it resumes.

  • Liquid Glass UI

    Built natively for macOS 26 with the system glass effect. No custom chrome, no lookalike styling.

  • Private by design

    No analytics. No tracking. No network calls. No account. Everything stays on your Mac.

How it works

Four steps. About five seconds.

  1. Step 01

    Click the menu bar icon

    A small panel slides down. No window, no Dock icon, no clutter.

  2. Step 02

    Pick protections

    Display, idle, screensaver, AC-only. Any combination.

  3. Step 03

    Pick a duration

    1 to 12 hours, or indefinite if you want to babysit it.

  4. Step 04

    Hit start

    The countdown begins. When it hits zero, Tostato stops automatically.

The Tostato popover on macOS 26, showing protection toggles, duration buttons, and the countdown.
Tostato's popover on macOS 26.

Private by design

Tostato runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing about how you use it is collected or sent anywhere.

  • No analytics
  • No tracking
  • No network calls
  • No account
  • No cloud sync
  • No telemetry
Read the privacy policy →

For the curious

Platform
macOS 26.0 or later
Architecture
Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
Language
Swift / SwiftUI
Power management
IOKit IOPMAssertion — the same API macOS uses internally
Sandbox
Full App Sandbox enabled, no special entitlements
Distribution
Mac App Store
Footprint
Agent app, ~10 MB on disk
Languages
English, Italian, German, Spanish, French

Under the hood, Tostato creates a separate IOPMAssertion for each protection you select, so they're independently enforced by macOS. The user activity option uses IOPMAssertionDeclareUserActivity, re-issued every 45 seconds to stay below the 60-second screensaver threshold. When you stop, every assertion is released cleanly. No background daemons, no kernel hooks, no scripts.

Common questions

Will Tostato drain my battery?

Only if you tell it to. The "AC power" protection is excluded automatically when you're on battery. You stay in control of which protections are active.

Is it safe?

Yes. Tostato uses Apple's official power management APIs — the same ones macOS uses internally. It runs sandboxed, with no special entitlements.

Does it work without an internet connection?

Yes. Tostato never needs the internet, and never makes a network call.

Why doesn't it have a Dock icon?

Tostato is a menu bar app by design. It's meant to be invisible until you need it, then out of the way again.

What happens when the timer hits zero?

Tostato stops automatically and releases every power assertion. Your Mac goes back to its normal sleep behavior immediately.

Can I quit Tostato anytime?

Yes — there's a Quit button right in the popover. Quitting releases every active assertion cleanly.