Studio Gauge is a free Mac app that keeps an eye on your Mac from a small tab on the edge of your screen. It shows CPU, memory, storage, heat, Wi-Fi strength and battery health at a glance, and it can hold your MacBook’s battery at a healthy charge while it sits on the charger. This post covers what it does and why we built it.
Battery care that holds overnight
This is the part we use most. Set a charge limit between 80% and 100% and your MacBook stops charging there. On macOS 27 it uses the Mac’s own limit, so it holds while the Mac sleeps and even with Studio Gauge closed.
If the battery is already above your limit when you plug in, Studio Gauge can run it down to the limit first and then hold it there, which is handy when you leave the Mac on the charger overnight. On the days you need a full charge, the Top up once button charges to 100% one time and then goes back to your limit.
The Battery saver switch turns Low Power Mode on and off from the same panel, so stretching the last hour of a charge takes one click. The Battery tab shows charge, health, cycle count, temperature and time left, with a live animation of power flowing from the charger through the battery to the Mac. Gauge can also let you know when you unplug, when a charger is too weak to keep up, and when the battery is running low.
The limit is built to fail safe. If Studio Gauge is force quit, crashes or is deleted while it is holding a charge back, charging returns to normal on its own, so your MacBook can always charge.
Wi-Fi strength you can read from the menu bar
Wi-Fi sits beside the battery in the menu bar, and both icons stay next to Apple’s own, so the notch never hides them. The Wi-Fi bars fill with the signal and change colour as it changes, green when it is strong and red when it is weak.
A full set of bars can still hide a connection that has stopped working, so Gauge checks the internet as well. When you are connected to Wi-Fi but nothing gets through, the icon turns orange with an exclamation mark. When a network is waiting on a sign-in page, as hotel and café Wi-Fi often is, Gauge tells you it needs a login page. You can turn on alerts for weak Wi-Fi and for when the internet drops, and Gauge lets you know when it is back. Network speed, down and up, sits in the Wi-Fi row whenever you want to check it.
Your Mac’s vitals in one panel
What you want to know about your Mac is scattered across Activity Monitor, System Settings and System Information. Studio Gauge gathers it into one panel. Click the battery icon in the menu bar and it opens on four tabs:
- Vitals shows CPU, memory, storage, thermals and Wi-Fi as colour-coded bars, with network speed and uptime underneath.
- Battery holds the charge limit and Battery saver, along with health, cycle count, temperature and the live power flow.
- Energy lists the apps using the most energy right now, with a Quit or Settings link beside each one, plus the apps running quietly in the background, such as menu bar apps and helpers with no window, with how much memory each one uses.
- Warnings collects anything that needs your attention today: low battery, running hot, an overloaded Mac, a nearly full disk, a weak charger or no internet. A dot on the tab tells you when one is live.
For AI coding tools, too
Studio Gauge began as a way to watch our own AI coding limits, and that part is still there for anyone who needs it. If you use Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Cursor, Gauge shows how much of each limit is left and how fast you are using it, and it warns you once at 90% before you run out. It can also let you know when a long Claude Code session finishes or needs your input. If you don’t use any of these tools, this part of Gauge stays hidden.
Wherever possible the figures come from the tools themselves, and anything estimated from local logs is labelled ESTIMATE. Your usage stays on your Mac, and Studio Grid never receives it. Gauge only goes online to fetch your own numbers, to activate your free key and to check once a day for a new version.
What building it taught us
1. The tools you build for yourself get the most honest feedback. We used Studio Gauge every day while building it, and every rough edge showed up quickly.
2. Showing what comes next is the most useful thing a monitor can do. Seeing how much time is left on the battery, or when a limit will run out, changes what you do next, and that idea is coming with us into every Studio product.
3. Native apps still feel different. A tab that tucks into the edge of your screen, and leaves a small handle you click to bring it back, is much easier to live with than a browser tab you have to remember to check.
Studio Gauge is free for Mac. The button opens a free checkout: enter your email and you get the download and your licence key right away. One key covers two Macs.
Studio Gauge comes from the same workbench as Gradient Synth and our other free tools. Join the Studio Grid newsletter and we will email you when the next app or tool is ready, along with the occasional update.
