Piccolo, an app that helps plan your daily coffee consumption

26 May 2026

Piccolo, by Australian app developer Josh McKinnon, tells you what time you can enjoy your last coffee each day, based on your nominated bedtime. Sounds like the coffee drinker’s friend to me.

Most apps just add up milligrams. Piccolo runs a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model — the same maths clinicians use — over every drink you log. Each coffee is absorbed to a peak about 45 minutes in, then decays at your half-life (5 hours by default, and adjustable). Stack a few drinks and the curves add up, giving you the one number that matters: how much caffeine is active right now.

Still in development, and presently available only on iOS 26 (iPhone) by the looks of it, you can try out the Piccolo beta through TestFlight.

On a two coffee day, I can usually get away with the final cuppa at about four in the afternoon, if taken with food, usually in the form of late lunch.

I might still be up for another eight or nine hours, but anything after four, and on an empty stomach, is not the best for sleep for about twelve hours. Unless I get out walking for two to three hours, something that usually happens everyday.