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A desk at dusk with an external monitor and a MacBook, both screens glowing.

The display command center for Mac

Every screen, one dial.

One Mac menu-bar panel gives every connected display a real hardware brightness slider, a dimmer that reaches below minimum backlight, and a nightly curve that eases brightness and warmth toward bedtime.

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Free to start, Pro is a one-time purchase. macOS 15 or later, Apple silicon.

DisplayDialON PLAN

Your screens are at full brightness.

SCREEN BRIGHTNESS

Studio Display100%
Built-in Retina DisplayAuto100%

Drag a slider: the screens in the photo follow, down to the 5% floor.

Real hardware control

Drive your monitor's actual backlight from the menu bar.

DisplayDial speaks DDC/CI directly to your external monitors and adjusts your built-in display's native backlight. Every connected screen gets its own slider in one panel, so your desk monitor and MacBook screen respond from the menu bar.

33 ms

Measured on a Dell U2723QE: 33 ms write, 83 ms read.

A dark room at night, one monitor glowing a dim amber.

Below minimum brightness

Go darker than the hardware minimum, safely.

When your display reaches its lowest physical backlight at night, DisplayDial takes it further while protecting your screen from going completely black.

  1. 01

    Lower the physical backlight

    Pull the slider down to take your monitor's hardware backlight to its lowest native level.

  2. 02

    Dim past the hardware limit

    Over Dim adds a click-through dimming layer that stays invisible to macOS screenshots and screen recordings.

  3. 03

    Protected by a five-percent floor

    Every slider, shortcut, schedule, command, and AI action stops at 5%, and quitting restores normal brightness.

The Daily Dimmer

Follow a nightly curve anchored to bedtime.

Tell DisplayDial when you sleep and wake. Starting three and a half hours before bedtime, brightness and warmth glide down together to 13% and an ember 1,900K by 11pm.

Start winding down at 7:30pm, settle to 13% at 1900K by 11pm. Wake at 7am, full brightness 30 min later.

☾ 12pm6pm12am6am12pm

The band under the curve is the same day as color: what your screen looks like at each hour, from the numbers the app holds. Drag the moon to move bedtime.

  • Touch to pause

    Move a slider and the schedule steps aside for 90 minutes, or tap 10m, 30m, 1h or Tonight.

  • Learns your evenings

    Brighten your screen around the same evening time on three or more recent nights, and DisplayDial offers to start the wind-down then. It asks first and changes nothing on its own.

  • Sunset curve option

    Switch from bedtime anchoring to a Sunset curve mode that follows the local sun.

Inside the app

See the real Settings window.

Open the menu bar to adjust sliders right away, or open Settings to shape how DisplayDial fits your day.

DisplayDial Settings, Schedule: the sentence 'Start winding down at 7:30pm settle to 13% at ember 1900K by 11pm. Wake at 7am, full brightness 30 min later.' above the draggable plan.

Swipe the window sideways to read every setting.

Edit the bedtime-anchored sentence, then drag the arc to shape your wind-down.

Bright light mode

Cut through direct sunlight with one tap.

Working on a patio or beside a bright window takes every nit your Mac has. Sun Mode pushes your screen to maximum visibility for a set timer, then restores every setting.

  • Extra EDR lift

    Pushes built-in displays to full brightness and lifts extended dynamic range screens past 100%.

  • High-contrast macOS switches

    Turns on Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency while pausing evening dimming during your session.

  • Timed auto-restore

    Pick 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr or 4 hr; everything comes back when the time is up.

A MacBook on a marble cafe table in strong midday sun, with an iced coffee beside it, its screen lifting from washed out to readable.
The amber sun and the time left in the menu barIn the menu bar
DisplayDial's Sun Mode card: On until 1:45pm, 1h 42m left, with Add 30 min and Turn Off.

Built for multi-screen desks

Find eight more tools in the same dial.

Set the room's mood in one tap.

Switch between Day, Evening, Reading, Movie, Focus, Night and Away for brightness and warmth together.

Let your front app pick the light.

Assign a Mode to any app and return to your schedule when you switch away.

Keep decks bright and movies dark.

Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides and mirrored screens pin full brightness; full-screen video holds Movie mode.

Each monitor wakes at its own level.

Screens wake and dock at their saved levels, and named profiles like Desk re-apply when that layout reconnects.

Match your monitor to your MacBook.

Calibrate once by eye and your monitor tracks the laptop screen's actual brightness in nits.

Turn a nearby iPad into another monitor.

Flip one switch for Sidecar, or plug in by USB-C with Reach Desktop and it connects on its own.

Adjust any screen from the keyboard.

Press Control-Option-Command with Up or Down for the screen under the pointer, or add Shift for all.

Your desk dims when you step away.

Screens ease down to 15% after 120 seconds idle and snap back the moment you move.

Works with your AI

Ask Claude to set your screens in plain English.

DisplayDial bundles a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server inside the app. Click "Connect to Claude" in Settings to let Claude Desktop read and adjust brightness, warmth, and your nightly schedule, all held by the 5% floor.

How it compares

Bring every display tool together in one menu bar.

We studied 15 competitors and 17 indie tools, then scored Lunar, MonitorControl, BetterDisplay, Dimify, f.lux, desktop-dimmer and Nocturnal. DisplayDial brings hardware DDC/CI control, sub-minimum dimming, the bedtime curve and the 5% safety floor into one app.

FeatureDisplayDialLunarMonitorControlBetterDisplayDimifyf.luxdesktop-dimmerNocturnal
Real hardware (DDC) brightness, built-in and external✓✓✓✓✕✕✕✕
Dimming below the hardware minimum✓◐ Pro✕✓✓✕✓✓
Click-through dimming layer✓✕✕✕◐✕◐◐
Bedtime-anchored brightness and warmth curve✓✕✕✕✕◐ color only✕◐
Anti-lockout floor on every path✓✕✕✕✕✕✕✕
Idle energy saver with a readable floor✓✕✕✕✕✕✕✕
Per-display level kept through sleep and dock✓◐◐◐✕✕✓✕
All of the above in one panel✓✕✕✕✕✕✕✕

Scored from each product's own documentation, GitHub issue trackers and published reviews (July 2026). ◐ means partial or a documented reliability complaint.

Free and Pro

Start for free, then choose one-time Pro.

Free covers every display's brightness and the basic schedule, with the 5% floor always on. Pro adds the Daily Dimmer that learns your evenings, one-tap Modes and display automation, with the waitlist price for people on the list.

Free

$0to start, with every display
  • Per-display brightness
  • Manual Dim and Warmth
  • The basic schedule
  • The anti-lockout floor
  • Window snapping
Join the list
Waitlist price

Pro

One-timeone purchase, a key that activates on your Mac
  • The Daily Dimmer curve that learns your evenings
  • One-tap Modes
  • Per-app brightness presets
  • Per-display profiles
  • The idle energy saver
Join the list

Questions

What people ask first.

How does DisplayDial control my external monitor's brightness?

DisplayDial speaks DDC/CI, the monitor's own brightness control, directly, and drives the built-in display's backlight natively. Each display gets its own slider in the menu bar. On a Dell U2723QE, a brightness change takes 33 ms and a read takes 83 ms.

How is DisplayDial different from Lunar, MonitorControl, or f.lux?

DisplayDial brings capabilities usually split across several utilities into one panel. Across 15 competitors and 17 indie tools studied, it is the app that combines hardware DDC/CI sliders, click-through dimming below the lowest backlight, a bedtime brightness-and-warmth curve, and a 5% anti-lockout floor.

Can my screen ever get stuck completely black?

Every path in DisplayDial passes through one 5% brightness floor: menu-bar sliders, the schedule, keyboard shortcuts, idle dimming, the command line, and AI requests. If an external monitor reconnects stuck dark, the reconnect safety net raises it back up, and quitting hands every display back at its normal brightness.

Which displays does it work with?

Every display gets a dial. The built-in screen dims with its own backlight, external monitors with their own brightness control over DDC/CI, and Over Dim, the click-through dimming layer, carries any display further once its own brightness reaches the bottom. It runs on macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon.

How does the Daily Dimmer bedtime schedule work?

Anchor the schedule to your bedtime, such as the 11pm default. DisplayDial begins winding down three and a half hours earlier at 7:30pm, tapering brightness and warmth together to 13% and 1,900K by 11pm, then brightens to full over 30 minutes after your 7am wake time.

What is included in the Free version and in Pro?

Free is $0 and includes per-display brightness, manual Dim and Warmth, the basic schedule, the 5% anti-lockout floor, and window snapping. Pro is a one-time purchase that adds the Daily Dimmer curve that learns your evenings, one-tap Modes, per-app presets, display profiles, and the idle energy saver.

How does the Claude integration work?

DisplayDial includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server inside the app. One click on Connect to Claude in Settings lets Claude Desktop read and change brightness, warmth, and the schedule with tools like dim_status, dim_set, dim_warm, dim_schedule_get, and dim_schedule_set, all held by the 5% floor.

Can I use DisplayDial outdoors in bright sunlight?

Yes. Turn on Sun Mode for 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, or 4 hr. It sets the built-in display to full brightness, adds an extra lift past 100% on extended dynamic range (EDR) screens, turns on Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency, and puts every setting back when the time is up.

DisplayDial's mark, a crescent moon cradling the sun

Put every display on your desk under one dial.

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Runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon.

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