MacFanPilotCustom presets
Hold a fixed speed in rpm, or draw a curve of 2 to 8 points that follows the hottest CPU core, the CPU average, the GPU, or the hottest sensor overall.
v1.1.0Free · Open source · MIT license
Fan control for Apple Silicon Macs, from the menu bar.
MacFanPilot shows your CPU and GPU temperature and fan speed at a glance, and lets you decide how the fans behave: leave them to macOS, follow a temperature curve, or hold a fixed speed.
macOS asks you to approve the app the first time you open it. It takes about a minute. See how →MacFanPilot is a Mac app. It does not run on phones or tablets — open this page on your Mac to download it.
Native and tiny
Built with SwiftUI, no third-party code, about 1 MB. Lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon.
Fully offline
No account, no analytics, no network connections at all. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Hands the fans back
If the app quits, crashes or loses its sensors, macOS takes over the fans again.
Four presets. Or draw your own.
Switch with one click from the popover. Drag the temperature to see how each built-in preset responds.
Hottest sensor
AutomaticmacOS
macOS controls the fans.
Balanced37%
Rises from 50 °C to full speed at 92 °C.
Performance75%
A steeper curve, from 40 °C to full speed at 85 °C.
Full Blastfull
Maximum speed.
Each bar is what the preset asks for, as a share of the fan’s range between its minimum and its maximum speed. Automatic leaves the fans to macOS.
The popover
CPU and GPU temperature, a chart of the last five minutes, the speed of each fan, and one-click preset switching.
Menu bar readout
Icon only, CPU temperature, fan speed, or both. An outlined fan means macOS controls the fans; a filled fan means a preset is running.
Per-fan control
On a Mac with two fans, each fan can have its own mode.
Import and export
Save presets as a file to move them to another Mac.
Automatic on battery
Optional. Presets pause on battery and return when power is connected.
Shortcuts and Focus
A “Set Fan Preset” action for the Shortcuts app, usable from keyboard shortcuts and automations, and a Focus filter that switches preset while a Focus is on.
Notifications
Optional. Get an alert when fan control stops or the overheat protection takes over.
Sensors tab
Lists every temperature sensor the Mac exposes.
Launch at login
Restores the last preset. Celsius or Fahrenheit.
Built to
fail safe.
The fans are driven by a small system helper, and that helper is the safety net. It gives the fans back to macOS when:
- you choose Automatic or quit the app
- the app crashes or stops responding for 20 seconds
- the Mac shuts down or restarts
- temperatures cannot be read
- macOS rejects the fan commands
fans returned to macOS
Overheat protection
If any CPU or GPU sensor reaches 100 °C, every fan runs at full speed until it cools to 95 °C, whatever the preset says.
Within the fan’s own limits
It never asks a fan for a speed outside the range the fan itself reports.
The chip still protects itself
Fan control changes noise and temperature. It does not switch off the chip’s own thermal protection.
Please note. Fan control on Apple Silicon relies on behaviour Apple does not document, and a macOS update can change it. If control is refused, MacFanPilot says so and keeps working as a monitor. The software is provided as is, without warranty.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your Mac.
MacFanPilot contains no networking code. It has no account, no telemetry and no update checks. Presets and settings are stored only on your Mac. The source code is public, so this can be checked.
Download and install
Six steps. About a minute.
MacFanPilot is not notarized by Apple, so macOS will not open it on the first try. That is expected. You approve it once in System Settings, and the steps below show how. The app is open source, and you can verify the download with the checksum below or build it yourself.
- 1
Download and copy
Open MacFanPilot-1.1.0.dmg and drag MacFanPilot into Applications.
It must run from Applications; fan control cannot be set up while the app runs from the disk image.
The window that opens. - 2
Open it once
Open MacFanPilot from Applications. macOS shows a warning that Apple could not verify the app. Click Done.
Do not click Move to Trash. It is the highlighted button, so do not press Return either.
The warning. - 3
Allow it in Privacy & Security
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security section. Next to the message that MacFanPilot was blocked, click Open Anyway, confirm with Open Anyway again, and enter your password or use Touch ID. You only do this once.
- The Open Anyway button appears only after you have tried to open the app, and stays for about an hour.
- On macOS 14 you can instead Control-click the app in Applications, choose Open, then Open again.
The bottom of Privacy & Security. 
The dialog that follows. This time the button you want is in the middle. Prefer Terminal?
Instead of step 3, remove the quarantine flag with this command:
$ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MacFanPilot.app - 4
Find it in the menu bar
MacFanPilot has no Dock icon and no window. Look for the fan icon in the menu bar and click it.
Temperatures and fan speeds work straight away, with no further permission.
The icon and its popover on a first run. The orange line is how version 1.1.0 says that the fan helper is not installed yet; nothing is missing, and step 5 takes care of it. - 5
Turn on fan control
In the popover, click the link under the presets. On a first install it reads Try again; if the helper was installed on this Mac before, it reads Install helper to control fans…. System Settings opens at General → Login Items & Extensions (called Login Items on macOS 14). In the list of apps allowed to run in the background, switch MacFanPilot on and confirm with your password or Touch ID. Go back to the menu bar icon and pick a preset.
Until you approve it, the popover shows “Allow MacFanPilot in Login Items to control fans…”, which opens the same place.
MacFanPilot in the list, switched on. Your other apps in the list are left out of this picture. 
The popover while it waits for your approval. - 6
Optional settings
Click Settings… in the popover to turn on Launch at login, choose what the menu bar shows, or switch Notify when fan control stops off.
macOS asks once for permission to show notifications, the first time there is something to report.
Settings, with the helper installed.
What MacFanPilot asks for
Which Macs it runs on
Supported
Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later.
Tested
MacBook Pro with M3 Pro on macOS 26. Other models are expected to work but are untested.
Fanless Macs
MacBook Air: temperature monitoring only.
Not supported
Intel Macs.
Tried it on another Mac? Use Copy Diagnostics in Settings and open an issue on GitHub to report how it went.
Questions
Why does macOS say it cannot verify the app?
Notarization is a paid Apple service this project does not use yet. The app is signed by its developer and its source is public, but Apple has not scanned it, so macOS asks you to approve it yourself.
Can this damage my Mac?
The helper keeps fans within the limits the hardware reports, forces full speed if anything reaches 100 °C, and returns control to macOS when something goes wrong. The chip’s own thermal protection stays active. It is still software that relies on undocumented behaviour and comes without warranty, so use Automatic if you are unsure.
Nothing happened when I opened it.
MacFanPilot lives only in the menu bar. Look for the fan icon at the top right of the screen. If the menu bar is crowded, the icon may be hidden behind other icons or the notch.
The popover says the helper is missing from the app bundle.
On a Mac that has never had the helper, that is how version 1.1.0 words “not installed yet”. Nothing is missing. Click Try again right below it and carry on with step 5 of the install guide.
The preset I chose has a grey tick and the menu bar shows a warning triangle.
The preset could not be kept running. The popover shows the reason, the app retries by itself, and choosing the preset again retries at once.
Can I use it alongside Macs Fan Control or TG Pro?
Not at the same time. Quit the other app first.
Does it send any data?
No. The app makes no network connections.
How do I update?
Download the new version, quit MacFanPilot, and replace the app in Applications.
Uninstall
Click the menu bar icon, then Settings… → General → Fan control helper → Uninstall.
Quit MacFanPilot and delete it from Applications.
Optional, to remove presets and settings:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/MacFanPilot defaults delete uz.stiv.macfanpilot