Leaving your Mac running around the clock wastes electricity and lets pending updates pile up — yet shutting it down manually every night, then waiting for it to boot every morning, gets old fast. The smarter move is to put the routine on autopilot: let your Mac start itself before your workday and shut itself down when you’re done.
Apple used to offer this as a simple checkbox, then moved it into the Terminal on newer systems. This guide covers both paths: the classic Energy Saver schedule on macOS Monterey and earlier, and the pmset commands that replace it on Ventura and later.
Schedule startup and shutdown on macOS Monterey and earlier
- Open the Energy Saver schedule. Go to System Preferences → Energy Saver. On a MacBook, open the Battery pane and switch to the Power Adapter tab instead — scheduled power events only run while plugged in. Click the “Schedule…” button in the corner.
- Set the automatic start. Tick “Start up or wake,” choose the days (weekdays, weekends, every day, or a single day) and the time — 8:00 AM on weekdays is a solid default.
- Set the automatic shutdown. Tick the second checkbox, pick Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down from the dropdown, set its days and time — say, Shut Down at 11:00 PM daily — and click OK. Your Mac now follows the routine on its own.
Schedule startup and shutdown on macOS Ventura and later
Apple removed the Schedule button in Ventura, so power scheduling moved to a Terminal command called pmset — just two commands. Open Terminal (our guide to quickly opening the installed apps list in macOS 26 shows the fastest way there); Apple Support documents the full pmset syntax.
- Schedule an automatic start. Type
sudo pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU 08:00:00, press Enter, and type your administrator password. The letters are day codes — M, T, W, R (Thursday), F, S (Saturday), U (Sunday) — soMTWRFSUmeans every day; drop letters to skip days, e.g.MTWRFfor weekdays only. - Schedule an automatic shutdown. Type
sudo pmset repeat shutdown MTWRFSU 23:00:00and press Enter. Note that macOS keeps only one repeat rule active at a time, so this replaces the previous one — pick the event that matters most, or use a third-party scheduler for both. Tom’s Guide rounds up several good Mac automation utilities. - Check or remove the schedule. Run
sudo pmset -g schedto see what’s registered, andsudo pmset repeat cancelto remove the rule entirely.
Good to know before you rely on it
A scheduled shutdown only fires if your Mac is awake when the time arrives — asleep, and macOS waits roughly ten minutes, then skips the event. The classic trick: schedule a wake-up five minutes before the shutdown. And your work is safe: macOS shows a countdown with a Cancel button, and apps with unsaved changes block the shutdown and ask you to save.
If it still doesn’t work
If the schedule never fires, check three things: on a MacBook, confirm it’s on the charger, since power events need the Power Adapter; on Ventura and later, run sudo pmset -g sched to verify the rule registered and that no typo in the day letters broke it; and remember that a Mac asleep past the ten-minute grace window simply skips the event — that’s what the wake-five-minutes-early trick is for.
FAQ
Can I schedule both startup and shutdown on Ventura or later?
Not with pmset alone: only one repeat rule can be active at a time, so each new command replaces the old one. Choose the event you care about most, or turn to a third-party scheduler for full two-way automation.
Will a scheduled shutdown close my apps without asking?
No. macOS shows a countdown with a Cancel button, and any app holding unsaved documents halts the shutdown and prompts you to save. While you’re tuning your Mac, you may also like our guide to enabling face lighting during video calls on Mac.
Conclusion
Whether you use the old Energy Saver schedule or the modern pmset command, automatic startup and shutdown takes one of computing’s dullest chores off your plate. Set it once, and your Mac will be warmed up when you sit down and dark when you walk away.
