We measured Stayaway on a real PC. Here are the numbers.
How long Windows sees you idle while Stayaway runs, how fast Auto Detect starts, and how much memory and CPU it uses, measured on Windows 11 and shown here.
By the Stayaway team3 min read
While Stayaway runs, Windows never counted the PC as idle for more than 7 seconds. Auto Detect started a run about 20 seconds after the last touch of the mouse, and the app used under 37 MB of memory and 0.13% of one CPU core. We ran it on our own Windows 11 PC on 20 October 2026, with Stayaway 0.1.7 installed and nobody touching the mouse or keyboard.
These are the numbers behind the promises on our homepage, so here is exactly how we got them.
What we measured
| What | Result |
|---|---|
| Longest gap Windows recorded without input, during a 3-minute run | 6.9 seconds |
| Time from the last input to Auto Detect starting a run | 18.8 and 24.2 seconds (the setting was 20) |
| Mouse movements Windows saw in those 3 minutes | 289 |
| Memory while running | 34.2 to 36.3 MB, so under 37 MB |
| CPU while running | 0.13% of one core |
Why 7 seconds matters
Windows decides your PC is idle by asking one question: how long since the last mouse move or key press? The screen saver, the screen turning off, sleep and the lock screen all wait for that number to reach a timeout you set in minutes. Time trackers ask the same question with their own timeout: 5 minutes for Hubstaff's idle prompt, 15 for Time Doctor's Timeout After, 2 for ActivTrak and 3 for DeskTime, according to each one's own documentation.
During our run the number never went past 7 seconds. None of those timers came close.
How we measured it
We didn't use Stayaway's own readings. A short PowerShell script read Windows' counters directly:
GetLastInputInfo, Windows' own record of the last input, every quarter of a second, for the idle gap.GetCursorPos, to count how often the pointer moved.- The process's working set and processor time, for memory and CPU.
The script waited for Auto Detect to start a run on its own, then watched for three minutes. You can download the same script and run it yourself: it only reads those counters, sends nothing and changes nothing. We'll run it again on each release and update this post when a number changes.
What it doesn't measure
It measures how your computer sees the activity. It doesn't measure what a time tracker records about your work, such as screenshots or the apps you used, and Stayaway doesn't change those. Our post on whether mouse jigglers can be detected covers that in full.
FAQ
Will Stayaway slow my computer down? No. In our measurement it used under 37 MB of memory and 0.13% of one CPU core while running.
Will my screen still lock or go to sleep? Not from inactivity while a run is going. Windows never counted more than 7 seconds without input, and those timeouts are set in minutes. Locking the computer yourself still works, and the run pauses until you unlock it.
How soon does it start after I walk away? About 20 seconds with the default Auto Detect setting. You can set it longer, or pick your time tracker and Stayaway sets it for you.
Can I run the test myself? Yes. Download the script, open Stayaway with Auto Detect on, run the script in PowerShell, and leave the mouse and keyboard alone for about four minutes. It prints the same numbers for your PC.