Fan control for Mac
Keep your MacBook cool on your lap.
macOS leaves your MacBook's fan off while the chip heats up, then barely turns it. Puff keeps a gentle breeze on from the start — a Puffy slider in your menu bar, no numbers to manage.
Measured on an M3: the chip's peak 10 °C lower than with macOS, at Puff's gentlest settingNo card, no account. Then $9 once — no subscription. macOS 14 or later.
Puff needs a Mac with a fan. MacBook Air models with Apple silicon don't have one. Works on the base M2 and M3. Every other Mac with a fan, from M1 to the new M6, is still being verified: the free trial tells you in a minute.
See it in under 30 seconds.
29 seconds, with chill music: the slider, the cloud's faces, and what we measured.
Measured, not promised.
Real work, not a stress test: the same app built over and over, in the bursts a working day is made of. Same MacBook Pro, a cool start each time — once with macOS running the fan, once with Puff at its gentlest.
A little air goes a long way.
The hottest the chip got during the same build, at each setting. Past a gentle breeze, more air buys only a few degrees — so keep it low and keep it quiet.
- DozingmacOS decides 82 °Cfan off, then 2,500 rpm
- ComfyPuff at 20 % 72.6 °C3,200 rpm from the start
- ComfyPuff at 35 % 70.4 °C3,900 rpm
- WorkingPuff at 55 % 69.7 °C4,800 rpm
“Chip” is the processor's own sensor, the hottest spot inside the Mac; the case under your hands runs far cooler. MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3), plugged in, 28 September 2026. One Mac, one room — your numbers will differ.
A Puffy slider and a cloud.
Drag it
The cloud or the slider, whichever is closer. All the way left is Auto: the fan is macOS's again.
No numbers to read
No sensor tables, no graphs. Puff tells you how it's doing: dozing, comfy, working, all in.
Never slower than macOS
Set it as quiet as you like: when the chip gets hot enough that macOS would be running the fan faster, Puff runs it faster too. It only ever adds air.
Never left stuck
Quit, sleep, or crash, and the fan goes straight back to macOS. It can hand the fan back when you unplug, too.
Why Puff exists
My MacBook Pro kept getting hot on my lap while its fan sat perfectly still. macOS keeps the fan quiet for as long as it can, which is the right call on a desk. On a lap it means the bottom of the machine gets properly warm before anything happens.
I wanted one slider that says: start earlier, stay gentle. So I made one, and gave it a face.
— Umut, who makes Puff
Barely there.
About a tenth of one percent of a single core, panel open or closed — the cloud's breathing is handed to the window server, so watching it costs nothing extra. The background service that talks to the fan takes 11 MB and sits idle until Puff asks it for something.
What Puff knows about you: nothing.
No account and no analytics in the app. To run the free trial, Puff sends one salted hash of your Mac's hardware ID to our licence server — never the ID itself. Payment is handled by Paddle. Privacy policy.
One price. Yours to keep.
Less than a lap desk, and you'll use it on every lap.
- Everything Puff does. There is only one version.
- On two of your Macs.
- Free updates for Puff 1.
- Try it for 7 days first. No card needed.
- Changed your mind? A full refund within 14 days.
Payment by Paddle, in your currency, with tax handled. Your key appears the moment you've paid.
Questions
Why does my MacBook Pro get so hot on my lap?
Because macOS keeps the fan off until the chip is properly hot — on the M3 we measured, for five and a half minutes of real work while the chip climbed to 82 °C. On a desk that's a good choice for silence; on a lap, the bottom of the case warms up first. Why, and what you can do about it for free.
What will the charge look like?
Puff is sold through Paddle, so Paddle — not Puff — is what appears on your card statement. If you don't recognise a charge, email us before your bank: we'll find it and refund it the same day.
When does the trial start?
The first time Puff moves your fan — not when you download it. Take your time setting it up; you still get all seven days.
What happens when the trial ends?
The fan goes back to macOS, exactly as it was before Puff. Nothing breaks and nothing nags; buy Puff whenever you like and it picks up where you left it.
Is it safe to control my Mac's fan manually?
Puff never sets a fan outside the range your Mac itself reports, and whenever it quits, sleeps or stops for any reason, the fan returns to macOS within seconds. Running a fan faster than macOS would is what it's built to do.
Does Puff work on my Mac?
So far it is confirmed on Macs with the base M2 and M3 chips. Other Macs with a fan, from M1 to the new M6, haven't been verified yet, and Apple restricts manual fan control on some of them, notably M3 Pro, M3 Max, M4 Pro and M4 Max. The free trial is the way to find out, and it tells you in a minute. This page will list each model as it's confirmed.
Why does Puff need administrator approval?
Changing fan speed needs a small system-level service. macOS asks you to allow it once, in Login Items. It only accepts requests from Puff itself, checked by code signature.
Will it drain my battery?
Puff itself uses about a tenth of a percent of one core. A faster fan does draw a little power, so by default Puff hands the fan back to macOS when you unplug.
How do I remove Puff?
Open Settings and press Remove next to Background service — that takes the helper off your Mac. Then quit Puff and drag it to the Trash. Your licence key keeps working if you install it again.
I can't see Puff in the menu bar.
Open Puff again from your Applications folder and its panel appears. On a MacBook with a notch, a crowded menu bar can hide icons behind it: hold Command and drag Puff's cloud to the right to keep it in view.
Does it work on MacBook Air?
Not on MacBook Air with Apple silicon — it has no fan. Intel MacBook Air models do have one.
If I set it low, will my Mac run hotter?
No. Puff only ever adds air: when the chip gets hot enough that macOS would be running the fan faster than your setting, Puff runs it faster too, and says so. Close the lid and the fan goes back to macOS entirely.
What happens when I close the lid?
The fan goes back to macOS. A closed lid means your Mac is either asleep or on a desk driving another screen, and neither is a lap — so Puff steps aside and picks up again when you open it. If you run in clamshell and want Puff to carry on, there's a switch for it in Settings.
Will it make my Mac louder?
At light loads, a little: Puff runs a soft breeze where macOS would keep the fan off. That's the trade, and a little goes a long way: in our test, Puff's gentlest setting kept the chip's peak 10 °C below macOS's. Drag the slider to taste, or all the way left to hand the fan back.
How is Puff different from Macs Fan Control or TG Pro?
Those show every sensor and let you tune every curve. Puff shows a Puffy slider and a cloud, for people who want a cooler lap and no numbers to manage.