# Tune your Mac's mouse acceleration, or turn it off

macOS speeds the pointer up as you move the mouse faster. Meowse shows that curve for your mouse and lets you make it faster or slower without changing its feel, reshape it, or turn acceleration off.

## What mouse acceleration does

With acceleration, how far the pointer goes depends on how fast you move the mouse, not only how far. A slow movement covers a few points for careful work; a quick flick crosses the screen. macOS draws this as a curve: mouse speed along the bottom, pointer speed up the side.

Some people love it. Others, often gamers and designers, want the pointer to go the same distance for the same movement every time, or want the curve just a little faster or slower than the Tracking speed slider allows.

## What macOS lets you change

- **Tracking speed** in System Settings → Mouse moves along a set of built-in curves. Each step changes both speed and shape.
- **Pointer acceleration**, under Advanced in the same pane, turns acceleration on or off.
- Both apply to every mouse at once, the Magic Mouse included, and neither lets you change the curve itself.

## Tune the curve in Meowse

Open Settings → Mouse. The graph shows your mouse's curve exactly as macOS computes it, starting from whatever your Mac is set to, with three dots on it.

1. Drag the **middle dot** up or down to make the whole curve faster or slower. Its shape stays the same, so the pointer feels like it always has, only quicker or calmer.
2. Drag the **outer dots** to reshape the curve: the left one for slow, careful movements, the right one for fast ones. Option-drag the middle dot to move it alone.
3. Click **Use macOS Settings** to go back to your Mac's own curve at any time.

The readout below the graph says what's applied: the macOS curve, the macOS curve made faster or slower (such as **1.30×**), or your own curve.

## Turn acceleration off

Turn off **Mouse acceleration** and the pointer goes the same distance for every bit the mouse moves, however fast you move it. The graph becomes a straight line with one dot: drag it to set the speed, from 0.1× to 3×.

## Only external mice

**Only external mice** is on from the start. Your USB and Bluetooth mice get Meowse's settings, while the Magic Mouse and trackpads keep your Mac's. Turn it off to give the Magic Mouse the same curve.

## How it works

Meowse hands the curve to macOS, and the system's own pointer code applies it. Pointer movement never passes through Meowse, so there's no added lag and no CPU cost while you move the mouse.

- Settings apply the moment you let go of a dot.
- A mouse that connects later gets them about a second after it appears, and they're applied again after your Mac wakes.
- Your Mac's own settings come back the moment Meowse quits, and System Settings is never changed.

## Questions

### Does it change my trackpad?

No. Trackpads have their own settings in macOS, and Meowse never changes them. With Only external mice on, the Magic Mouse keeps your Mac's settings too.

### Is it the same as the Pointer acceleration switch in System Settings?

Turning acceleration off in Meowse works the same way, with two differences: a dot sets the speed, and it can apply to external mice only. With acceleration on, Meowse can also make the curve faster, slower or a different shape, which macOS can't.

### What happens when I quit Meowse?

Your Mac's own pointer settings come back straight away. Meowse never changes System Settings, so there's nothing to undo.

### Does it work in games?

It shapes the pointer everywhere macOS moves it. Some games read the mouse directly and apply their own sensitivity, which Meowse's curve doesn't change.

---

Meowse is free for macOS 14 or later. Download: https://github.com/salvcy/meowse/releases/latest/download/Meowse.zip · Web page: https://meowse.app/mouse-acceleration · Everything in one file: https://meowse.app/llms-full.txt