Zortos293 had enough. The constant AFK kicks, the telemetry running in the background, the lack of real controls over your own stream, and instead of just complaining about it online, he built his own GeForce NOW client from scratch. It’s called OpenNOW, it’s completely open source, it’s already turning heads across the PC gaming community, and it does things NVIDIA‘s official app simply doesn’t.
The project lives on GitHub under the organization OpenCloudGaming, and it’s built with Electron and TypeScript. It is not a mod, not a wrapper around the official client, Zortos293 reverse-engineered the whole thing independently. You still need your own GeForce NOW account to use it, so this isn’t about getting free access to the service. It’s about getting a better experience with the subscription you’re already paying for.
And honestly? The case for OpenNOW is pretty hard to argue with.
NVIDIA kicks you out after 8 minutes. OpenNOW doesn’t.
If you’ve used GeForce NOW with any regularity, you know the drill. Walk away from your desk, take a phone call, grab something to eat, come back eight minutes later and you’ve been disconnected. NVIDIA’s client cuts your session the moment it detects inactivity, and you have to start the whole reconnection process over again. It’s meant to keep server resources available for active players, which makes sense on paper, but in practice it’s just annoying.
OpenNOW’s Anti-AFK feature eliminates that entirely. Your session stays alive on your terms, not on NVIDIA’s timer.
The other major selling point is privacy. The official GeForce NOW app collects telemetry, data about your hardware, software, and usage habits that gets sent back to NVIDIA. OpenNOW collects absolutely nothing. According to the project’s GitHub page, your credentials are stored locally and only sent to NVIDIA’s authentication servers for login purposes. Everything else, your settings, your session data, stays on your machine. And since the entire codebase is MIT licensed and publicly auditable, you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it.
One fun detail buried in the FAQ: OpenNOW wasn’t always built in Electron. Zortos293 originally developed it using Rust and Tauri, then switched to Electron for better cross-platform compatibility and faster development. The project has been evolving fast.
What OpenNOW actually brings to the table
The feature list here is genuinely impressive for a community-built project still in active development.
On the streaming side, OpenNOW supports H.264, AV1, and fully implemented H.265/HEVC, with streams up to 4K at 240fps, adjustable bitrate up to 200 Mbps, 8 and 10-bit color, and 4:2:0 and 4:4:4 chroma subsampling. For input, you get full keyboard and mouse support, up to four simultaneous gamepads, mouse sensitivity settings, and clipboard paste, both of those last two being features the official client flat out doesn’t offer.
There’s also a real-time stats overlay that shows you round-trip time, decode performance, render stats, jitter, packet loss, and input queue, actual technical detail that the official app buries or hides entirely. Microphone support with mute and unmute controls is already implemented as well. Coming down the road: instant replay, in-stream screenshots, and a full HDR streaming pipeline, all listed on the public roadmap.
Platform support covers Windows, macOS, Linux x64, and Linux ARM64, that last one in experimental form, with builds specifically tested on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5. So yes, this can potentially run on ARM-powered devices and compact hardware setups.
What OpenNOW doesn’t have yet: flight controls, Discord integration, and support for Android, iOS, and smart TVs. Those are real trade-offs, especially for flight sim enthusiasts and people who rely on Discord while gaming. But for the average PC gamer who just wants a cleaner, more private, more customizable experience on the service they’re already subscribing to, those gaps are easy to live with.
NVIDIA’s legal team is the only real question mark
OpenNOW’s GitHub page is transparent about what this is: an independent, community-built project with no affiliation, endorsement, or sponsorship from NVIDIA Corporation whatsoever. That disclaimer is right there at the top, in plain language.
The question the community is already asking is how long NVIDIA lets it run. PCWorld raised the possibility that NVIDIA could move to block OpenNOW’s access to the service at some point, and that’s a legitimate concern. There’s no guarantee this stays available. The counterargument is that every OpenNOW user is a paying GeForce NOW subscriber, no one is pirating anything here, which might give NVIDIA reason to leave it alone. Or it might prompt them to look at what Zortos293 built and actually start adding some of these features to the official client. Either outcome would be a win for users.
For now, OpenNOW is free, actively maintained, and working. PCWorld tested it with Baldur’s Gate III, Brawlhalla, and Fortnite on Windows and found no issues with speed or latency, solid results for a project still in beta.
If you’re a GeForce NOW subscriber who’s tired of the AFK disconnects and the lack of transparency, OpenNOW is absolutely worth trying. You can find it ready to download on the official GitHub page, we’ll leave the link right here, with builds available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Just keep in mind it’s still under active development, so expect the occasional rough edge as the project continues to grow.
NVIDIA built the servers. Zortos293 built the better client.
What do you think, is OpenNOW the kind of project you’d actually switch to, or do you stick with the official app? Tell us in the comments!