Desktop pet safety
Are Desktop Pets Safe for Your Mac?
Mostly, yes. A well made desktop pet is light on your Mac, keeps out of your way and leaves your data alone. Here's what that looks like, and what to check.
The short answer
A desktop pet is just an app that draws a small animal on top of your screen. There's nothing risky about the idea. What matters is how a particular one is made, and where you download it from.
Below, we explain how our own pet behaves on a Mac, because those are the things we can speak to with certainty. Then we give some general advice for any desktop pet you're thinking of installing, ours included.
CPU and battery
The first worry most people have is speed. A pet that makes your fans spin isn't one you keep.
- Ours uses about 2.5% of the CPU while walking, measured on Apple silicon, and less while it sits or sleeps.
- When your screen is locked or your display sleeps, it stops rendering altogether.
- After about five minutes without you, it falls asleep until you're back.
- On battery, it slows down and naps more, so your laptop lasts.
If you want to check any desktop pet yourself, open Activity Monitor while it runs and watch its CPU and energy columns for a few minutes. A light app stays low; a heavy one is easy to spot.
It never blocks your clicks or steals focus
A pet on top of your windows could, in theory, get in the way. Ours is built not to. Clicks pass straight through it to whatever is underneath, unless you mean to pick it up. It never takes focus from the app you're typing in, so you won't lose a sentence because the pet wandered past.
When you need it gone, hide it from the menu bar or with a keyboard shortcut. For calls and presentations, a setting keeps it out of screen sharing. You can read more about how it behaves on the desktop pet for Mac page.
Privacy
To walk along your windows, a desktop pet needs to know where they are. Ours reads window positions on your Mac, locally, only to know where to walk. That information doesn't leave your Mac.
The one thing you do send us is photos of your pet, so we can make them. Those photos are used only for that. We delete them 30 days after delivery, or sooner if you ask, and we never use them for training unless you opt in. How the photos become a pet is explained in our custom desktop pet guide.
What to check before installing any desktop pet
This is general advice, and it applies to every desktop pet, including ours. Most desktop pets are made by small teams or single developers, and most are perfectly fine. A few simple habits keep it that way.
- Download from the maker. Get the app from the developer's own site, a project page they link to, or an app store. Avoid copies on download mirrors and file-sharing sites, which can be repackaged with extras you didn't ask for.
- Be careful with character packs. For Shimeji and similar apps, fan-made packs are part of the fun. Get them from places with a clear source, and be wary of any pack that comes as a program to run rather than a folder of images.
- Check what it asks for. When an app asks for a permission on macOS, ask yourself if the pet needs it. Knowing where windows are, or where the cursor is, makes sense for a pet. Access to your files, contacts or camera usually doesn't.
- Read the privacy page. If the app takes photos or other data, the maker should say plainly what happens to it and when it's deleted.
- Watch it for a day. Activity Monitor tells you honestly how much CPU and energy it uses.
Ours is a native Mac app for Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 or newer, sold directly from staywith.pet rather than through the App Store. Download it from our own site, and nowhere else. For a wider look at the options, see the best desktop pets in 2026, or start with what a desktop pet is.
How it works
Step 1
Add photos
In the Mac app, add a few photos of your cat or dog. A side view and a face are enough to start.
Step 2
See them in 3D, free
In under ten minutes you can turn them around and compare them with your photos. Nothing to pay yet.
Step 3
They move in
Keep them for a one-time price and they live on your desktop: walking the Dock, napping on your windows.
Pricing
Free
See your own pet in 3D before you pay anything.
$19 once
Keep them. No subscription. Up to 3 of your Macs, 2 free regenerations, every behaviour we add later.
14-day money back
If it doesn't look like your pet, you get your money back. No questions asked.
Another pet is $9. All pricing
Questions
Do desktop pets slow down your computer?
A well made one shouldn't. Ours uses about 2.5% of the CPU while walking on Apple silicon, less while it rests, and stops rendering when your screen is locked or your display sleeps.
Can a desktop pet be a virus?
The idea of a desktop pet isn't harmful, but any download can be. The risk comes from where you get it. Download from the maker's own site or an app store, avoid repackaged copies on mirror sites, and check what the app asks permission to do.
Does a desktop pet drain the battery?
It uses some power, like any app that draws on screen. Ours slows its frame rate and naps more on battery, and sleeps after about five minutes when you're away.
Will the pet show up in screen shares?
Ours has a setting to keep it out of screen sharing, and you can hide it from the menu bar or with a keyboard shortcut.
What happens to the photos of my pet?
They're used only to make your pet. We delete them 30 days after delivery, or sooner if you ask, and never use them for training unless you opt in.
Is staywith.pet on the Mac App Store?
No. It's a native Mac app sold directly from our own site, for Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 or newer.
Meet them in 3D
Download the Mac app, add a few photos, and see your pet in 3D before you pay anything.
See your pet in 3D free