Free Desktop Pets

"Free desktop pets" is a search that usually ends in disappointment — either the app is free but ad-supported, free but abandoned in 2014, or "free" in the trial sense where the pets stop showing up after two weeks. Pets Therapy takes a different approach: a large, permanently free tier, with paid extras that add to it rather than unlock it. Here's the exact split, feature by feature, so you can decide before you install anything.

What you get for free

• 37 pets — cats (in several colours), a T-Rex, apes, a Shiba Inu, a Labrador, an owl, a koala, a sloth, a shark, frogs, mushrooms, bunnies, a crow, a betta fish and more, each with its own walk, idle and sleep animations.
• 5 sleepy-places — little houses and beds your pets can nap in.
• Unlimited custom pets — create, import, rename and delete your own characters with your own sprites. No paid tier required.
• 3 random events — weather, a passing UFO, and teleportation portals that appear on their own while you work.
• Multi-monitor support — pets roam across every display you enable.
• Full control over size, speed and behaviour, including per-pet size overrides.
• Every language — the app is fully translated into 19 languages at no cost.
• No ads, no telemetry-for-sale, no account, no time limit.

What the optional upgrade adds

We'd rather be straight about this than have you find out after installing. Supporting the app — either with a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase — adds:

• 66 additional pets, bringing the total to 100+.
• 12 additional random events — tornadoes, dolphins, airplanes, school-bus and balloon pickups, screen glitches and more, on top of the 3 free ones.
• Automatic pet rotation — the app periodically swaps your whole line-up so your desktop cast keeps changing on its own.

Nothing in the free tier is removed or downgraded if you don't buy, and there's no nagging countdown. The paid tier exists because a solo developer maintains this across macOS, Windows and Linux — not because the free version is deliberately crippled.

How to get free desktop pets

1. Install from your platform's official store — Mac App Store, Microsoft Store, or Steam.
2. Launch it — your first pet appears immediately, no sign-up screen.
3. Open the pet picker and add as many of the 37 free pets as you want.
4. Optionally, follow the custom pets guide to add your own characters — still free.

A note on "free" and safety

The biggest genuine risk with free desktop pets isn't the price — it's the delivery method. Much of this category is distributed as raw .exe or .jar files from personal sites and file lockers, which is exactly the pattern malware uses. Installing from the Mac App Store, Microsoft Store or Steam means the app is sandboxed and vetted by the platform, and updates are signed. That's worth caring about regardless of which app you end up choosing.

FAQ

Is Pets Therapy really free?

Yes — 37 pets, unlimited custom pets, multi-monitor support and size and speed controls, with no trial period, no time limit, no ads and no account. The optional subscription or lifetime purchase adds more pets and events; it never removes anything you already had.

Is there a catch?

The limitation is scope, not time: you get 37 of the 100+ pets and 3 of the 15 random events. That's the honest trade — the free tier isn't a countdown, it's a smaller (but permanent) slice.

Can I make my own desktop pet for free?

Yes, and this is genuinely unusual in the category — custom pets are completely free, with no cap on how many you create or import.

Which free desktop pet app has the most pets?

Pets Therapy, at 37 free characters. Most alternatives ship exactly one: Shimeji has a single base mascot (community packs are added manually), Desktop Goose has one goose, eSheep has one sheep. See the full comparison.

Do free desktop pets slow down your computer?

They use a small amount of resources while animating. Pets Therapy is built to stay lightweight during normal use, and you can reduce the number of active pets or their animation speed at any time.