Low and full thresholds
Set the low and high levels with sliders right in the menu bar dropdown, or with steppers in Settings. The two are always kept at least 5% apart.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · Battery & Power
Plug in on time.
Unplug at the right level.
ChargeLevelChime lives in your menu bar and plays a sound and posts a banner when your battery reaches the low or full level you chose. Defaults are 20% and 80%.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Alerts that respect your battery.
Set your own limits, pick your own sounds, and stay quiet when you need to.
Chime plus a visible banner
Each alert plays a sound and posts a plug-in or unplug banner. An optional critical alert at 5% plays three times and is delivered as Time Sensitive.
Your choice of sounds
Pick a separate sound for low, charged and critical alerts from your system sounds, preview it, or choose your own audio file.
Repeats, quiet hours, snooze
Repeat once or every 1 to 30 minutes until resolved. Quiet hours mute sounds but keep banners, and you can snooze for 30 minutes from the menu.
Live status at a glance
The menu bar shows a battery state icon, an optional percentage and a colored dot. The dropdown adds power source and time remaining when macOS provides it.
No startup blast, no network
Alerts are held for 90 seconds after launch and re-arm with 2% hysteresis, so you are not spammed. It uses only Apple frameworks and makes no network calls.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
ChargeLevelChime is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download ChargeLevelChime-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move ChargeLevelChime.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/ChargeLevelChime.app
- Allow notifications when macOS asks on first launch, so battery banners can appear sounds still play if you decline.
Download
Get ChargeLevelChime for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click ChargeLevelChime.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
- Built with Claude Code · how and why
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is ChargeLevelChime really free and open source?
Yes. It is released under the MIT license and the full source is on GitHub. There are no ads, accounts or in-app purchases, and an optional Support button links to Ko-fi.
What permissions does it need?
Only notifications, requested on first launch so banners can be shown. Launch at login and file access for a custom sound are optional. It does not ask for Accessibility, Screen Recording, Microphone, Location or network access.
Where is my data stored?
Your settings are stored locally in the standard macOS preferences for the app. Nothing is sent anywhere, since the app has no network calls or analytics.
Why isn't the app notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account, and this is a free project. Right-click the app and choose Open once to get past Gatekeeper, or build it yourself from source.
Was this written by AI?
Yes. ChargeLevelChime was generated by Claude Code from a written spec as a clean-room reimplementation, with no code or assets from any commercial app. The full source is on GitHub under MIT, so you can read every line before you run it. It has had less human review than a hand-written app, so bug reports are welcome.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
ChargeLevelChime is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi