Chiaki is a free, open-source client that streams PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles directly to your Mac, letting you play your full game library without sitting in front of your TV.
What is Chiaki?
Chiaki is an unofficial PlayStation Remote Play client for macOS (and other platforms) built by the open-source community. Where Sony's own Remote Play app locks you into a narrow feature set and an opaque update cadence, Chiaki gives you a transparent, actively maintained alternative that you can inspect, compile, and tweak yourself. Point it at your PS4 or PS5 on the local network — or over the internet — and your console's video and audio stream straight to your Mac while your inputs travel back in real time.
I've been running Chiaki on an M-series MacBook during long evening sessions and the difference from Sony's official client is immediately apparent: lower latency on a solid Wi-Fi 6 connection, no mandatory Sony account nagging on launch, and a preferences panel that actually lets you tune encoder settings rather than hiding them.
What does Chiaki do best?
Chiaki excels at delivering a genuinely low-latency remote play experience with a level of configurability the official app simply refuses to offer. You can set the stream resolution up to 1080p, adjust the bitrate ceiling to match your bandwidth, choose between hardware-accelerated H.264 and H.265 decoding, and wire up any USB or Bluetooth gamepad macOS sees — including Xbox and third-party controllers that Sony's app ignores.
- Resolution & bitrate control — dial in exactly how much bandwidth you want to spend per session.
- H.265 / HEVC support — meaningfully better image quality at the same bitrate compared to H.264-only clients.
- Hardware decode on Apple Silicon — the GPU handles the video pipeline, keeping the CPU free and the fan quiet.
- Any gamepad — DualSense, DualShock 4, Xbox Series, Switch Pro, and generic HID controllers all work.
- No Sony account required at runtime — registration is a one-time step; after that Chiaki connects directly to the console.
Is Chiaki free?
Yes — Chiaki is completely free, with no paid tier, no subscription, and no in-app purchases. It is released under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), which means the source code is open and auditable. You can install it via Homebrew Cask (brew install --cask chiaki) or build it from source yourself.
Who should use Chiaki?
Chiaki is the right tool for anyone who wants to stream their PlayStation console to a Mac and finds Sony's official Remote Play client too limiting or too unreliable. Power users will appreciate the granular AV settings; privacy-conscious players will appreciate the ability to audit exactly what the app sends over the wire; and Apple Silicon owners will appreciate that the native ARM build keeps thermals in check during long sessions.
If you're a casual player who never touches settings and just wants a big green button that says "Connect," the official Sony Remote Play app is the path of least resistance. But if you've ever watched Sony's client stutter at a fixed 720p while your network is clearly capable of more, Chiaki is the upgrade you've been waiting for.
What are the best Chiaki alternatives?
Sony's own PS Remote Play is the obvious first comparison — it works without any setup but offers almost no tuning. Moonlight is the spiritual sibling for NVIDIA GeForce NOW and local GameStream setups: same philosophy (open-source, configurable, low-latency), but it targets NVIDIA-hosted games rather than a PlayStation console. Steam Link covers the Steam library on Mac with similar polish. None of these reach a PlayStation library without a PS4 or PS5 on the network, which is exactly where Chiaki is uniquely useful.
How does Chiaki compare to Sony's official Remote Play?
Sony's Remote Play is easier to set up for first-timers but caps resolution, hides encoder settings, and requires an active internet connection to Sony's servers even on a fully local network. Chiaki does the heavy lifting locally once your console is registered, unlocks H.265, and lets you push the bitrate as high as your router will allow. The trade-off is a slightly more involved first-time setup — you'll need your console's IP address and a PSN-issued registration token — but that overhead pays for itself quickly if you stream more than occasionally.
