Both apps stop charging at 80% via the SMC. The difference is everything that happens after that.
AlDente is a mature, well-known charge limiter with rich manual controls. Battery Autopilot covers the same core (a hard 80% limit at SMC level) and then automates the rest: AI power savings verified by measurement on your Mac, a full charge timed to when you usually leave, and a daily “+47 min extended” readout.
Choose AlDente if you want granular manual control or use an Intel Mac. Choose Battery Autopilot if you want battery care to run itself — and want longer runtime today, not just less wear long-term.
| AlDente | Battery Autopilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Hard charge limit (e.g. 80%) via SMC | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI power saving learned from measured ΔW | — | ✓ |
| Full charge timed to your departure | Manual “Top Up” | ✓ |
| Visible “+minutes extended” daily results | — | ✓ |
| LLM-assisted strategy (with local guardrails) | — | ✓ |
| Heat-based charging protection | ✓ | Temperature monitoring |
| Intel Mac support | ✓ | Apple Silicon only |
| Free tier / trial | Free basic version | 7-day full trial |
| Pricing model | One-time / yearly (Pro) | $3.49/mo or $19.99/yr |
7-day free trial. Charge guarded at 80%, measured power savings, results in “+minutes extended”.
Download free (macOS)AlDente (by AppHouseKitchen) popularized charge limiting on the Mac. It writes standard keys on the SMC to pause charging at your chosen percentage, and its Pro tier adds tools like heat protection, sailing mode and calibration. It supports both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and a basic free version exists.
If you enjoy tuning things yourself — deciding when to top up, when to calibrate, how to react to temperature — AlDente gives you the knobs.
Battery Autopilot treats the charge limit as the starting point, not the product. One AI engine handles three jobs: it guards charging at 80% (with a continuity guard that detects and reverts outside overrides, plus a failsafe that always charges when low), it applies power-saving actions and measures the real wattage difference (ΔW) on your specific Mac, keeping only what provably works, and it learns when you usually unplug so the battery is at 100% right before you leave — and back at 80% the rest of the time.
The result is visible every day in your menu bar as “+47 min extended today”, so you never have to take battery care on faith.
You use an Intel Mac (Battery Autopilot requires Apple Silicon and macOS 15+). You prefer a one-time purchase over a subscription. Or you actively enjoy manual control and don't want automation making decisions for you.
You want to plug in, forget, and still get both outcomes: less long-term wear (80% guard) and more runtime today (measured power savings). You want the full charge to happen just in time for your commute without pressing a “top up” button the night before. And you want proof it's working, in minutes, every day.
Two charge limiters must not run at the same time — they will fight over the same SMC keys. Quit AlDente and disable its “launch at login” (or uninstall it), then install Battery Autopilot and approve its helper in System Settings. The 80% guard takes over immediately and the AI starts learning your usage patterns right away.
Also disable macOS “Optimized Battery Charging” to avoid conflicts — see our guide on why the built-in optimization is not a hard limit.
No. Both control charging through the SMC and will conflict. Quit and disable one before running the other.
Yes — Battery Autopilot writes the same standard SMC keys used by well-known charge limiters. The app is Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple, with a failsafe that restores normal charging on quit or errors.
No. It requires Apple Silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 15 or later. On Intel Macs, AlDente or the open-source CLI “batt” are the established options.
The subscription funds the AI strategy layer (server-side LLM calls), continuous updates for new macOS versions, and covers up to 3 Macs per account. There is a 7-day full-featured free trial, and you pay nothing if you cancel during it.
7-day free trial. Charge guarded at 80%, measured power savings, results in “+minutes extended”.
Download free (macOS)