How to set a live wallpaper on Mac

Updated October 20, 2026

Does macOS have live wallpapers built in?

Sort of. Since macOS Mojave there are dynamic wallpapers, which switch between stills as the day goes on (the desert that darkens at night, for example). Since Sonoma there are Aerials: slow-motion videos that play as the screen saver and on the lock screen.

The catch is that when you unlock your Mac, the Aerial slows down and stops. On the desktop it’s a still image. So macOS doesn’t give you a background that keeps moving while you work, and it won’t let you use a shader or a web page as your wallpaper.

That’s the gap apps like PrimoEngine fill. If you’re coming from Windows and want something like Wallpaper Engine, see Wallpaper Engine for Mac.

How to set a live wallpaper with PrimoEngine

PrimoEngine is a native app, made in Brazil, that draws wallpapers on your Mac’s GPU with Metal. It’s free, needs no account and lives in the menu bar.

What you need

• An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later).
• macOS 26 Tahoe or newer.

Installing

Grab the .dmg from the downloads section, open it and drag PrimoEngine into Applications. On first launch the app shows wallpapers running for real behind its window, so you see the result before you choose. After that it updates itself.

Choosing a wallpaper

Explore has the whole catalog, with filters for type and category and a free-only option. Open a wallpaper to see the live preview and click Use as wallpaper. It goes straight onto your desktop.

The six free-forever wallpapers are Electronic · PCB, Electronic · Scope, Starfield, Snowfall, Pulse and Origami Tunnel (the last two react to the music you play). The rest of the catalog, which you can watch move in the gallery, comes with Premium: US$ 8.99, paid once, for 1 Mac and 1 PC.

Customizing

Each wallpaper has its own settings under Customize: speed, color and, on web wallpapers, whatever controls the creator added. You can reset back to the original at any time.

What about multiple displays?

PrimoEngine treats each screen on its own. When applying, pick Use on all displays or use it on one specific display. In Screens, click a display to choose what it shows, or pause just that one.

A different wallpaper on each display is free. Premium adds per-display rotation, playlists and a day and night schedule that changes the scene by time of day.

How to use your own video as a Mac wallpaper

With Premium, any looping video can be your wallpaper:

1. In Installed, click + (Import).
2. Pick an .mp4, .mov or .m4v file up to 256 MB.
3. The app wraps it into a package for you, using the file name as the title.

A few tips from the docs: HEVC (H.265) video saves battery; make the last frame match the first so the loop is invisible; and keep in mind the video plays muted and fills the screen, cropping the edges if the aspect ratio differs.

If you’d rather use ready-made illustrations, the Cozy collection has watercolor-style video scenes like Tokyo Rain and Winter Cabin.

Tips to get the most out of it

• Use shaders on a laptop. Per the docs, Metal shaders are the lightest kind of wallpaper on battery. More in do live wallpapers drain battery?
• Choose what happens on battery. In Settings, under energy, you can keep the full frame rate, throttle to 30fps or pause while your Mac is on battery.
• Take it to the lock screen. With Premium, your desktop shader animates the lock screen too. See live wallpaper on the Mac lock screen.
• Add music. Shaders in the music-reactive collection move with whatever your Mac is playing.
• Make your own. A wallpaper is a folder with a manifest.json and a shader or web page, and an AI can write it for you. See how to make a live wallpaper with AI.

Download and try it

PrimoEngine is free, needs no account and is ready in under a minute. Download it for Mac, start with the free wallpapers and unlock the rest whenever you like.