Adguard 2.18.0.2089 Mac

Anyone who has relied on a browser extension to block ads knows the limits: it works inside one application and leaves the rest of the system exposed. AdGuard for Mac takes the same idea and applies it everywhere on the computer, filtering traffic before it reaches any app.

Block ads outside the browser

The software runs system-wide, so ads are caught in news readers, weather widgets, and other desktop tools, not just in Safari or Chrome.

Hide activity from trackers

A built-in spyware filter and tracker-blocking rules prevent analytics systems from building a profile of what you do online.

Scan sites for threats

Right-click the menu-bar icon for a pause timer and quick toggles

The menu-bar icon gains a lot of mileage once you learn its right-click habits. A plain left-click opens the main window, but a right-click reveals quick toggles for protection, a one-click pause timer, and a shortcut to report a missed ad on the current site. The pause function accepts durations from ten seconds to eight hours — handy when a payment page or a short-lived popup needs to pass unfiltered without digging into preferences.

In the Safari extension that pairs with the system service, a hidden gesture lets you block any element on the page by name. Hold the Control key and click an image, a banner remnant, or a leftover container, then choose “Block element.” A slider refines the rule from a single item to the whole domain. The same action is available from the main AdGuard window under the Filtering Log, which offers a running timeline view of every network request. Double-click any row there to build a custom rule without writing a single line of code.

Keyboard shortcuts stay out of the way but exist for those who look. Command-Option-A opens the assistant panel, a compact floating window that lists blockable items on the frontmost page without leaving the browser. Tapping Escape dismisses it instantly. The main window also responds to the standard Command-comma shortcut for preferences, skipping two clicks that new users tend to make through the gear icon.

Filtering at the network stack adds barely a millisecond of latency

The filtering engine sits at the network stack level and intercepts traffic early enough that blocked requests never reach the application layer. On an Apple Silicon Mac, the difference is a millisecond or two of latency that disappears into normal network jitter. The local DNS module — optional and off by default — adds a small advantage when enabled: queries resolve through encrypted channels, and the cache trims repeated lookups by half on busy connections.

Memory use as of version 2.18.0.2089 stays modest. The main process idles near 90 MB under light browsing and rarely exceeds 200 MB with a few dozen tabs open and several Electron apps running. The network extension that performs the actual filtering runs in a separate, sandboxed process, so a spike in one tab never freezes the filter for other applications. CPU activity is visible only during the first seconds after launch while rule lists compile; after that, the process parks itself near zero percent until a new connection fires.

Stability improvements in the current release addressed a crash that some users saw when waking from sleep on macOS Sonoma. The filtering service now re-attaches to the network interface more gracefully after a Wi-Fi change, which previously caused a brief, silent window where traffic flowed unfiltered. That window is gone.

Works alongside Little Snitch as a network extension with no conflicts

Because AdGuard operates as a network extension, it cooperates with Little Snitch and other firewall tools without conflict. Firewall rules see the original remote addresses; AdGuard sees the same traffic and applies its filter lists before the packet moves up the stack. The two layers complement each other, with one deciding what may connect and the other stripping what should not load.

Integration with macOS Focus modes is indirect but useful. A scheduled automation in the Shortcuts app can toggle AdGuard protection on or off based on a Focus trigger, so turning on a Work focus disables filtering for internal company portals that break under strict rules. The same approach works with location-based automations: leave home, and protection snaps on for public Wi-Fi.

Dark mode follows the system appearance setting automatically. The filtering log, the rule editor, and the assistant panel all flip to a dark palette without a separate preference, matching the rest of the Mac at night. The menu-bar icon also offers a monochrome option for users who dislike the green shield on a busy bar — a small checkbox in the General pane, easy to overlook but a relief once found.

A half-hour with a freelance writer

Consider a freelance journalist who files from coffee shops, a co-working space, and a home desk. The morning starts on café Wi-Fi, where the portal page loads a dozen tracking scripts before the login form appears. AdGuard strips the scripts, the portal loads in two seconds flat, and the first search for a source brings up results without the four sponsored listings that normally sit at the top of the page.

Back at the co-working desk, a messaging app serves a banner ad for a VPN service between conversation threads. The ad never appears. The writer’s CMS previews an article, and a third-party analytics embed that the publication forgot to sandbox fires a tracker — caught by the spyware filter and listed in the log with a timestamp and domain. A quick click in the filtering log creates a blocking rule for that specific subdomain, and the tracker is gone from future previews without touching the publication’s template.

At home, the same Mac handles a video call while a browser is open to research tabs. The call quality stays solid because no hidden mining scripts or auto-playing video ads consume bandwidth in the background. Later, the writer opens a photo editor that pings a licensing server; the request passes clean, because the default filter lists leave application activation checks alone. The whole setup required one install and a handful of preference tweaks, then fell into the background.

Allowlist banking and payroll domains to fix broken checkout flows

The default configuration is aggressive enough to break a few checkout flows and login forms, so the first stop is the “Allowlist” tab. Adding a banking domain or a payroll portal there saves repeated pauses. The allowlist also supports wildcards, so entering *.internal.company.com exempts an entire private subdomain tree from filtering.

Next, visit the Filters pane and enable the “AdGuard DNS filter” if local DNS protection is turned on. The filter blocks known tracking and ad-serving domains at the DNS level, catching requests that sneak past the network extension. Users who run an adguard nightly download from the developer’s edge channel sometimes see experimental DNS rules here before they land in the stable release.

The Stealth Mode module ships off but deserves a look. It strips HTTP referrer headers, hides search queries from sites you land on, and spoofs the timezone reported by the browser. Turning it on costs a small performance penalty on older Intel machines; on Apple Silicon, the effect is undetectable. The module’s “Self-destructing cookies” option deletes third-party cookies seven seconds after the last tab using them closes, a cleaner approach than outright blocking that some sites interpret as a broken login attempt.

Finally, check the “Network” tab and confirm that the extension handles all network interfaces. On a Mac that roams between Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and a VPN, the automatic setting covers all three, but users who run an adguard mac setup alongside a corporate proxy sometimes need to toggle the “Filter HTTPS protocol” checkbox per interface. Leaving it on everywhere is safe; toggling it per interface fixes a handful of edge cases where deep packet inspection at the proxy layer doubles the certificate validation step and causes a timeout.

AdGuard checks websites for phishing, fraud, and other dangerous activity, flagging risks before a page fully loads.

AdGuard for Mac v2.18 adds compatibility with three AI-powered browsers. The release also bumps the minimum system requirement to macOS 10.15 and includes under-the-hood improvements for stability.

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Apple Silicon and Intel Macs