Stop apps from burning your hotspot data
Hotspot Guard is a macOS menu bar tool. It watches how much data each app pulls over your iPhone hotspot, and steps in when one of them runs away with it.
The guard itself is free, forever — everything on this page, no time limit and no account.
Hotspot Guard Plus · $24.99 one-time
Adds plan profiles: separate monthly ledgers for each connection you juggle, with one-click switching. Future Plus features are included.
Your license key arrives by email; activate it in Settings → Plus (Settings → About on 1.2.0 and earlier, which links straight to it). Works on up to 3 Macs. See the terms of sale before buying.
Per-app limits, not all-or-nothing
Set how much an app may use in a minute or an hour. Apps keep working normally until they cross the line.
Warns before it acts
Highlight, notify, ask, or step in automatically — you choose the level for each rule. Automatic action is off by default.
Knows when you are on the hotspot
It only guards on metered connections and goes idle on regular Wi-Fi, so it never gets in your way at home.
Ignores local traffic
AirDrop, Bonjour, and anything on your local network never counts against your plan, because it never touched the hotspot.
Keeps big downloads off the hotspot
Mark Xcode, Docker, or any command line tool as blocked, and it asks you the moment they reach for the network.
Monthly budget with a forecast
See what is left in your plan and whether you are on track to run out before the billing period ends.
Hotspot Guard runs entirely on your Mac. It has no account and no usage telemetry: what it measures — per-app traffic, budgets, the knowledge pack, and the record of what it did — never leaves your machine. It reaches the network in only three places, and two of them are off until you say yes: the once-a-day update check (app version and macOS version only) and the click-to-explain lookup for an unknown process. The third applies only if you buy Plus, which checks your license key. The privacy policy spells out each one.