The 5 best screen time apps for Mac (2026)
Billable hours, fewer distractions, a free open-source log or just “where did today go?” — each of these apps answers a different question, and macOS answers some of them for free.
The best screen time apps for Mac in 2026 are Timing (best for work tracking and client reports), RescueTime (best for focus sessions and blocking across devices), ActivityWatch (best free, open-source tracker), Timecard (best for a printed day card and firmer limits) and Tally (best for a private per-app and per-website ledger with gentle limits). If a weekly chart and hard limits are enough, macOS’s built-in System Settings › Screen Time is free.
Disclosure: We make Tally, one of the apps on this list. We’ve tried to place it where it genuinely fits and to describe every app fairly, using each developer’s own site. Prices and features checked 28 October 2026.
“Screen time app” means different things. A freelancer wants every hour filed under the right client. Someone losing afternoons to YouTube wants a nudge, or a wall. A developer wants a free log they can query. Many people just want to know how long they were really on their Mac today, and on what. The apps also differ on two things that matter more than features: whether you pay once or every month, and whether your activity stays on your Mac. We’ve labeled each pick by the job it does best.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Price model | Runs locally? | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timing | Detailed work tracking & client reports | Subscription (from $10/month) | Yes; sync & cloud backup optional | macOS 14+ |
| RescueTime | Focus sessions & blocking across devices | Free Lite; paid plans monthly or yearly | No; reports are built on RescueTime’s servers | macOS 11+; also Windows, iOS, Android |
| ActivityWatch | Free, open-source tracking | Free (MPL-2.0) | Yes | macOS (Apple silicon & Intel builds); also Windows, Linux, Android |
| Timecard | A printed day card & limits that cover the app | One-time purchase | Yes (optional anonymous usage counts) | macOS 14+ |
| Tally | Private app & website ledger, gentle limits | One-time purchase | Yes | macOS 14+ |
Prices and features checked 28 October 2026 on each developer’s website. Check the official site before you buy.
1. Timing: best for detailed work tracking and client reports
Timing has been in development since 2011 and goes deeper than anything else here. Besides the app in front, it records the window title and the document path or URL, so a day breaks down into the files and pages you worked on. It then helps you turn that activity into time entries for projects and clients.
Standout features
- Automatic tracking of apps, documents and websites, with idle time you can exclude.
- Wide browser support, from Safari and Chrome to Firefox, Arc and Orion; private and incognito tabs are discarded.
- On Expert and up: AI activity summaries, calendar and meeting detection, iOS activity import, filters and report rounding.
- On Connect: an MCP integration so AI agents can file activity into projects, plus team features.
Limits
- Subscription only. After you cancel, you can view older data but nothing new is tracked.
- It needs Accessibility access to read document paths, and Screen Recording for a few apps that don’t share window titles.
- It’s built for time tracking; its plans don’t list daily app or website limits.
Price: subscription, monthly or yearly. Professional (1 Mac) is $10 a month and Connect (3 Macs) $168 a year; Expert (2 Macs) is priced at checkout.
Who it’s for: anyone who needs to know which client or project their hours went to, not just which app.
2. RescueTime: best for focus sessions and blocking across devices
RescueTime tracks time in apps and websites in the background and shows it on a web dashboard. Its focus is changing habits, with goals, alerts and Focus Sessions that block distracting sites and apps. It’s the only pick here that also covers Windows and phones.
Standout features
- Automatic app and website tracking, with productivity categories and weekly summaries.
- Focus Sessions that block distracting websites and apps, plus goals and alerts, on the paid plans.
- Apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android under one account.
Limits
- Your activity (app names, website addresses, window titles) is stored by RescueTime. It says it doesn’t collect keystrokes, screenshots or page content.
- The free Lite plan shows only the past two weeks and leaves out Focus Sessions and alerts.
- On a Mac it needs Accessibility and Automation permissions; Firefox also needs its browser extension.
Price: free Lite plan, or a monthly or yearly subscription (see above). Team plans are per user.
Who it’s for: people who want enforced focus time across a computer and a phone, and don’t mind a cloud account.
3. ActivityWatch: best free, open-source tracker
ActivityWatch is a free, open-source tracker. It records the active app and window title, notices when you’re away from the keyboard, and shows the result in a dashboard in your browser. Version 0.14.1 is current.
Standout features
- Away-from-keyboard detection: by default, three minutes without input counts as away.
- Categories you define, to see time by type of work.
- Website tracking via its extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox; URLs from Safari are captured too.
Limits
- It’s a tracker, not a coach: there are no daily limits or nudges.
- Syncing between devices is still being built; check the project’s blog for what works today.
- Its site doesn’t state a minimum macOS version or which Mac permissions it needs.
Price: free.
Who it’s for: developers and tinkerers who want their own data, free, on any platform.
4. Timecard: best for a printed day card and limits that cover the app
Timecard is a new, independent Screen Time alternative that launched in October 2026. It counts the app in front and, in browsers, the site name, and ignores time you’re away. Each evening it “prints” a card from the notch (or the top of the screen) with your punch-in and punch-out times, timeline and top apps and sites. It’s the closest app here to ours.
Standout features
- It can import the roughly four weeks of app history macOS already kept.
- Per-site tracking in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge and other Chromium browsers, keeping the host name only.
- Daily limits for apps and sites: a nudge at 80%; at 100% the tab goes blank or the app is covered, with options for 10, 15 or 30 more minutes.
- “Ask Timecard” uses Apple Intelligence on macOS 26, and a request for extra time is judged by Apple Intelligence on your Mac.
Limits
- It’s very new, so there’s little track record yet.
- The price rises as licenses sell, so check the current price on the site.
- It reads tab titles when a daily limit runs out, and sends optional anonymous usage counts unless you turn them off in Settings.
Price: one-time purchase, updates included, with a 14-day refund; tiered as above.
Who it’s for: people who want a fun daily ritual, limits with some teeth and their history from before they installed it.
5. Tally: best for a private app and website ledger with gentle limits
Tally is our app. It counts the app in front while you’re actually there; walking away, sleep, the lock screen and switching users are struck off. Turn on a browser and Tally splits its time into sites, keeping only the site name. Each app and site becomes a row of tally marks, filed under Work, Social, Fun or Other.
Standout features
- No permission needed to count apps: no Accessibility, no Screen Recording.
- Opt-in per-site time in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave and Edge: site names only, never full addresses; incognito windows in Chrome, Arc, Brave and Edge are skipped.
- Day, Week, Month and History views, kept forever, with search.
- Daily limits that nudge: a heads-up at 80%, then a small “Time’s up” card with “5 more minutes”.
- An evening day sheet image and a year sheet with your top five and peak hour.
- Optional AI agents page: Claude Code and Codex sessions and tokens beside your own time, without reading prompts or code.
- A read-only MCP server for Claude, Codex or Cursor, and CSV or JSON export.
What it doesn’t do
- It never blocks an app or site. If you want a hard wall, use Screen Time’s App Limits or RescueTime.
- It can’t import history from before you installed it; Timecard can.
- It can’t detect Safari private windows, so pause Tally or leave Safari off for private browsing.
- No iPhone or iPad data, no cloud sync, no team dashboards and no client billing.
- It records apps and sites, not documents; for per-file time, use Timing.
Price: one-time purchase, no subscription, no account: ₹799 for 1 Mac, ₹1,299 for 3, ₹1,799 for 5. Free updates and a 14-day refund.
Who it’s for: people who want an honest, private record of their Mac day with gentle limits, and developers who want their AI agents’ time beside their own.
The built-in option: macOS Screen Time
Every Mac already has Screen Time, and for many people it’s enough. It’s free, it can include your iPhone and iPad on the same Apple Account, and it can enforce a real block behind a passcode. We checked Apple’s Mac guides for macOS 26 and 27.
Turn it on and see your usage
Apple menu › System Settings › Screen Time
› App & Website Activity › Turn On App & Website Activity
(optional) Share across devicesApp & Website Activity shows a bar chart for today, this week or last week, colored by your top three categories. Below the chart, choose Show Apps or Show Categories to drill in. With more than one device, a Device menu switches between one and All Devices.
Set limits and quiet hours
System Settings › Screen Time › App Limits (time limits for apps, categories and websites)
System Settings › Screen Time › Downtime (a schedule away from the screen)
System Settings › Screen Time › Always Allowed (apps you can use during Downtime)
System Settings › Screen Time › Lock Screen Time Settings (passcode)You can also add a limit straight from the activity view: hover over a row and click Add Limit. If you set a Screen Time passcode, App Limits offers “Block at end of limit”, which stops the app until the passcode is entered. Downtime can run on one schedule every day or a different one for each day.
Where it falls short
Screen Time is built for limits and family controls more than for reviewing your own day. The charts show totals by app and category, not a timeline, and Apple’s guides describe no export. For a searchable record, your own categories or a gentler nudge than a block, use one of the apps above.
How we picked
- Current and on sale in 2026, checked on each developer’s site.
- Automatic tracking with a distinct job: work tracking, cross-device focus, free and open source, and two personal apps with different takes on limits.
- Clear about data. We noted where each app keeps your activity and which permissions it needs.
- Clear pricing from the developer; where a price wasn’t shown, we say so.
- No scores or ratings. We describe what each app does and doesn’t do.
We make Tally. We ranked it fifth because Timing, RescueTime and ActivityWatch each do something Tally doesn’t (client billing, other platforms, a free price), and Timecard is its closest rival: Timecard imports your earlier history and can cover an app at its limit, while Tally only nudges.
FAQ
What is the best screen time app for Mac?
It depends on the job. Timing is best for tracking work for clients, RescueTime for focus sessions and blocking across devices, ActivityWatch for a free open-source log, Timecard for a printed day card and firmer limits, and Tally for a private per-app and per-website ledger with gentle limits. macOS Screen Time is free and enough for many people.
Does Mac have a built-in screen time tracker?
Yes. Open System Settings, click Screen Time, then App & Website Activity and turn it on. It shows daily and weekly usage by app and category, and you can set App Limits and Downtime from the same place.
How do I see how much time I spend on apps on my Mac?
Turn on App & Website Activity in System Settings › Screen Time, then choose Show Apps below the chart to see time per app for today or the week. For a timeline or a longer searchable history, use a tracker such as Tally, Timing or ActivityWatch.
Is there a free screen time app for Mac?
Yes. macOS Screen Time is built in, ActivityWatch is free and open source, and RescueTime has a free Lite plan that shows the past two weeks.
Can a screen time app track websites on Mac?
Yes. Timing, RescueTime, Timecard and Tally all split browser time into websites, and ActivityWatch does it with a browser extension. Tally and Timecard keep only the site name; Timing records the full URL.
Do screen time apps send my data to the cloud?
Some do. RescueTime stores your activity on its servers to build reports. Timing keeps data on your Mac unless you turn on sync. ActivityWatch, Timecard and Tally keep your history on your Mac and need no account.
Key takeaways
- Pick by job: client billing (Timing), focus across devices (RescueTime), free and open source (ActivityWatch), a daily card with firmer limits (Timecard) or a private ledger with gentle limits (Tally).
- macOS Screen Time is free and can enforce limits behind a passcode; turn on App & Website Activity first.
- Check where your data goes: Timing, ActivityWatch, Timecard and Tally keep it on your Mac; RescueTime stores it on its servers.
- Subscription or one-time: Timing and RescueTime’s paid plans renew; Timecard and Tally are bought once; ActivityWatch is free.