Bongo Cat is the white cat that slaps your keyboard. It is also a meme from 2018, a web toy, and two different open-source desktop pets. Most guides blur them together. We checked the sources and split them up, starting with the open-source cat this wiki follows.
Demo clip from the official vladelaina/BongoCat README, the open-source desktop pet this wiki focuses on.
"Bongo Cat" means at least five different things in 2026, and most search results blur them together. These five profiles are the map for the whole site: every page states which cat it is about.
The open-source desktop pet this wiki follows: C with SDL3 and OpenGL, Live2D models, all three desktop platforms.
Installs from the Microsoft Store or GitHub Releases, and imports Mver, Tauri and Live2D model sources.
The free Steam game by Irox Games: you type, the cat punches your taskbar, hats drop.
28 achievements and officially published drop rates from 90 percent down to 1 in 500,000.
The open-source rewrite that started to bring the cat to macOS, now on all three platforms.
The README states it never collects user data; models come from the Awesome-BongoCat collection.
The Windows-only C++ overlay that started the desktop wave and spawned the Mver model format.
The author has moved on to CatTuber; the format outlived the app.
The 2018 table-slap GIF by StrayRogue and the bongo.cat web toy by Externalizable.
Tweet date verified against first-party data; the bongo.cat repo followed on 2018-10-18.
What sets the open-source Bongo Cat apart from every other desktop pet is the model ecosystem: an official catalogue, Live2D support and years of community formats.
A separate, unrelated product that shares the name: a free Steam game where the cat punches your taskbar while you type, with an item-drop economy on top.
All of them, in a sense. The 2018 meme came first, then the bongo.cat web toy, then the desktop apps. This wiki follows the open-source version by vladelaina, while the Steam game by Irox Games is a separate product that shares the name.
Yes in every form. The open-source desktop pets are free and the Steam game is free to play. The Steam version sells optional cosmetic DLC packs.
The main options are open source and widely used, but any app that reacts to your keys does listen to keyboard input by design. We break down what each version collects on the safety page.
No. The Steam game supports Windows and macOS only. If you want a Bongo Cat on Linux, the open-source desktop pets are the way to go.
Not from the projects covered here. There is no official mobile version of the desktop pets or the Steam game. Beware of copycat apps on app stores.
Start with the download guide, or jump straight to the model ecosystem that makes this cat worth keeping.
Download Bongo Cat Official site bongocat.pet