Buying
What is Mushroom?
Mushroom is a pixel-art desktop pet for macOS. It sits on your screen and nudges you to drink water, take breaks, eat something, rest your eyes, and wind down at night. You can also click it and talk to it, and everything it knows about you stays on your Mac.
How is this different from a Pomodoro or break timer app?
A timer fires on a schedule whether or not you are at the desk, so within a week you are dismissing it without reading it. Mushroom reads how long it has been since you last touched the keyboard, which means it can tell the difference between you working through lunch and you being at lunch. An hour at the desk earns a nudge, and an hour away earns nothing, because you already took the break.
The other half is that it is a pet. Muting a notification costs you nothing. Ignoring something you adopted feels different, and that is the whole reason it is still running on your Mac in month three.
What does Mushroom cost?
USD 9.99 excluding tax when you buy it here, or USD 5.99 on the App Store, which covers your Mac and your iPhone. Either way you pay once and it covers the whole app, forever.
The only thing that is ever charged monthly is the pair of features that run on servers, Friends messaging and Spore Storage file sharing, and you can run those yourself for nothing instead. The pricing page explains all of it, and will tell you which version to buy.
Is Mushroom a subscription?
No. The app is a one-time purchase and it never stops working. Every update since 1.0 has been free to everyone who already bought, on both stores.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, 7 days on the version you download from this site, with no account and no card. The Mac App Store version has no trial, because there the purchase is the licence.
What happens when the trial ends?
Mushroom goes to sleep in the menu bar. Nothing is deleted: your reminders, notes, stats and settings stay exactly where they are, and entering a licence key wakes all of it back up.
How many devices does one licence cover?
Up to 5 devices, Macs and iPhones together. If a licence check ever fails because you are offline, Mushroom keeps working: it will not lock you out over a network problem.
Should I buy Mushroom here or on the Mac App Store?
The App Store version is cheaper at USD 5.99, needs no licence key, and covers the iPhone app as well, but it has no free trial and it leaves out the dark room nudge. The version from this site costs USD 9.99, gives you 7 days to try it first, and includes that nudge, but it is the Mac app on its own. Both get the same reminders, chat and sync, and both can run the two server features on hardware you own.
One thing that catches people out: skins and add-ons need a licence key from this site. On the Mac App Store version that means owning the direct version as well, so if you want the extras it is cheaper to buy here in the first place.
Answer three questions and we will tell you which one fits.
Are updates free?
Yes. Every update since 1.0 has been free to everyone who already bought Mushroom. The version from this site updates itself, and the App Store version updates through the App Store.
Can I use Mushroom at work, or buy it for a team?
Yes. An organisation buys one licence per person and each person gets the same 5 devices an individual would. Spreading a single key across a team is the thing that is not allowed. There is a command line activation path for Jamf or Munki style deployment, documented on the help page.
How do refunds work?
Through Gumroad if you bought here, and through Apple if you bought on the App Store, since Apple is the seller in that case. Either way, write to hello@getmushroom.app first and we will try to fix whatever went wrong.
Will it run on my Mac?
What Macs does Mushroom run on?
Any Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. The current release is 1.46.0, and you can read what changed in the changelog.
Does Mushroom run on Intel Macs?
No. Mushroom is Apple Silicon only from version 1.40.0 onwards. The on-device chat model cannot run on Intel hardware, so shipping an Intel build would have meant shipping a version where chat was permanently broken.
Is there an iPhone app?
Yes, it is out on the App Store. It is one app rather than two, so buying Mushroom on the App Store covers the Mac and the iPhone together, at no extra cost, and it needs iOS 18 or later.
The phone carries reminders, the Stash and Friends. It has no pet and no chat, because it is a companion to a Mac rather than a second copy of one. The version downloaded from this site is the Mac app on its own, so if you want the phone as well, the App Store is the purchase that covers both.
Do I need Apple Intelligence to use Mushroom?
No. All the reminders, the reminders list, stats and streaks, the notepad, focus sessions, iCloud sync, Friends, file sharing and the Shortcuts actions work with no language model at all. Only chat needs one. On macOS 26 chat uses Apple Intelligence, and on macOS 15 or later without it you can download a small model once in Settings, Chat, which then runs entirely on your Mac.
Does Mushroom need an internet connection?
Not for the things it does most. Reminders, chat, the notepad, stats and the pet itself all run offline. A handful of optional extras need the network for obvious reasons, such as weather, the daily quote, and the news digest.
Privacy
Does any of my data leave my Mac?
There is no account, no analytics and no telemetry of any kind. Your chats, reminders, notes and calendar events stay in one file on your Mac. Chat runs on-device, so nothing you type to your mushroom is ever sent anywhere. A few optional features do talk to the network when you switch them on, and each one is listed in the privacy policy.
What permissions does Mushroom ask for?
Nothing at all when you first launch it. Notifications are requested the first time a reminder needs one. Calendar, Photos and coarse location are only ever requested when you switch that specific feature on yourself, and the setting turns itself back off if you decline. Mushroom never asks for Accessibility or Input Monitoring, and it does not use the microphone.
Does Mushroom sync between my Macs?
Optionally, through iCloud, using your own Apple Account and your own private CloudKit database. It is off until you turn it on in Settings, Data. Reminders, contacts, the notepad and your portable settings sync. Chat history, stats, reminder history and your licence stay on each machine.
Is Mushroom open source?
The app itself is a paid product and is not open source. The two optional servers behind Friends and file sharing are, under Apache 2.0, so you can read exactly what they do or run them yourself instead of using ours.
Living with it
What does Mushroom remind me about?
Water, breaks, snacks, eye strain on a 20-20-20 rhythm, winding down at night, and a mood check-in. Water and breaks are on out of the box and the rest are yours to switch on. Break reminders watch how long you have actually been active rather than the clock, and nothing arrives while you are already away from the Mac.
Can I add my own reminders?
Yes, two ways. Type it to your mushroom in plain language, such as “remind me in two hours to call Sam”, or fill in a small form in the reminders list. The form path uses no language model, so custom reminders work on every supported Mac. Reminders can repeat daily, on the weekdays you pick, every few days or monthly.
Will Mushroom nag me or make me feel guilty?
No, and this is a design rule rather than a setting. Every nudge offers Done, Snooze and Skip, and Skip is treated as an honest answer that never affects your mushroom's mood. Ignoring reminders entirely makes it droop a little, and one click on the recover button cheers it up. There is no death, no broken streak to punish you, and no red screen for a quiet week.
Can I hide the pet?
Yes. Hiding it closes the pet window only. Mushroom keeps running in the menu bar and every reminder still arrives, as a normal macOS notification instead of a speech bubble. Bring it back from the menu bar whenever you want.
Does Mushroom work with Shortcuts and Siri?
Yes. Mushroom adds two actions to the Shortcuts app, Add a Reminder and Start a Focus Session, and it does not need to be open for them to work. Siri on the Mac cannot call an app's actions directly, which is a macOS limitation, so wrap the action in a shortcut with a name you would say out loud and Siri can run that.
What languages does Mushroom speak?
English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. It follows whichever language your Mac is set to.
Still wondering?
The full feature list goes into more detail, and Help and Troubleshooting covers things that go wrong. Anything else, write to hello@getmushroom.app. 🍄