How to Screen Record on Mac, With or Without Audio

Quick Answer

Apple's pages describe two recorders on the Mac, and they show no price for either. Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot toolbar, choose what to record, click Record, and stop it from the menu bar or with Command-Control-Esc. The steps below come from Apple's own pages, read on 4 November 2026, and say which macOS version each step needs.

The recording lands on your desktop as a .mov file unless you change Save to under Options. If a recording will not stop, see Stop Recording.

The part people get stuck on is sound. Your voice is easy: choose a microphone. The sound coming out of the Mac itself is the part that two sources disagree on, so it has its own section below, with exactly what each one says and which apps can do it.

To send a recording, see Send It below, our guide to turning a video into a link, or the short Loop section for a Mac app that records straight to a link.

Screenshot Toolbar

These steps follow Apple's page on recording the screen, which is dated 14 September 2026.

1. Press Shift-Command-5 together to open the Screenshot app.
2. Choose a record button: Record Entire Screen, Record Selected Window or Record Selected Portion. For a portion, Apple says you can drag its borders to adjust it.
3. Click Options to change the settings: a microphone, Show Mouse Clicks, a timer in seconds, and a Save to location.
4. Click Record. If you chose a window, click the window you want to record.
5. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar, or press Command-Control-Esc. Stop Recording has more.
6. A thumbnail appears in the corner. Click it to edit the recording, or wait and it saves.

Apple says some apps, such as the Apple TV app, might not let you record their windows.

Apple's Mac User Guide page words some of this differently. It calls the tools Record the entire screen, Record a window and Record a portion of the screen, and it calls the pointer option Show Mouse Pointer. If a menu on your Mac does not match one page, it probably matches the other. That page also has a version picker, and shows no updated date.

Stop Recording

Apple's page gives one instruction for the Screenshot toolbar and the same one for QuickTime Player: click the Stop button in the menu bar, or press Command, Control and Esc together. See Apple's page, dated 14 September 2026. Apple's pages do not describe what the Stop button looks like. The Mac User Guide shows it as a picture and calls it the Stop Recording button. We did not open it on a Mac, so we cannot say more than where Apple says it is.

Esc is for cancelling. Apple lists it only for cancelling before you click Record, so do not rely on it to end a recording that is already running. After you stop, wait for the thumbnail in the corner and click it to edit, or let the file save. If you used QuickTime Player, Apple's support page says it opens the recording, while the Mac User Guide says an app may open depending on where you chose to save it.

Stuck Recording

Apple has no page on a recording that will not stop. This is what its other pages offer, in order, from least to most drastic. We did not test any of it on a recording.

• Try the other route. If the button is out of reach, use Command-Control-Esc. If the keys do nothing, click the button.
• Force the app to quit. Apple's page on forcing an app to quit, dated 8 December 2025, says to press Option, Command and Esc together, or choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, select the app that is not responding and click Force Quit. It does not say whether the Screenshot app or QuickTime Player is listed while it records.
• Use Activity Monitor. Apple's Activity Monitor page says you can quit a process even if it is in a loop or not responding. Quit closes it when that is safe, and Force Quit closes it immediately, with a warning that open files may lose data.
• A forced quit may lose the recording. Apple's Activity Monitor page warns that you may lose data if the process has files open, and no Apple page says whether a recording survives a forced quit.
• Restart. Apple's force quit page says to restart from the Apple menu if you cannot force the app to quit.

QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player has its own route, from the same Apple page.

1. Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder.
2. Choose File > New Screen Recording, or press Control-Command-N.
3. Click the arrow next to the Record button, choose a microphone, and tick Show Mouse Clicks in Recording if you want clicks shown.
4. Click Record. Click anywhere on the screen to record the whole screen, or drag to select an area and click Start Recording inside it.
5. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar, or press Command-Control-Esc, as Apple's page says. Apple's pages do not list a File menu item for stopping, so we do not give one. Apple's support page says QuickTime Player then opens the recording; the Mac User Guide says an app may open depending on where you saved it.

Apple adds a check: if you see the onscreen controls from the toolbar steps above, the Screenshot app is doing the recording, and if you see a Screen Recording window, QuickTime Player is. Apple's QuickTime Player page says that File > New Screen Recording opens Screenshot and displays the tools. We did not test which one opens on each macOS version.

If you hear a howl while recording through QuickTime Player, Apple says to lower the volume or use headphones with a microphone.

macOS Versions

Some of the toolbar's choices depend on your macOS version. This is what Apple's pages say: the support page is dated 14 September 2026, and the Mac User Guide shows no date.

Apple's support page says the capture format option is for supported Mac models using macOS Tahoe 26 or later, and lists SDR (Most Compatible), which uses H.264, and HDR, which uses HEVC. The Mac User Guide's Sequoia 15 version lists tools for the whole screen and a portion but not a window, which is how we know the window tool is newer. We did not read the Mac User Guide for macOS versions older than Sonoma 14, or older versions of Apple's support page.

Audio

There are two kinds of sound, and the Mac treats them differently.

Your voice. In the toolbar, click Options and choose a microphone, as Apple's support page says. From Sequoia 15, the Mac User Guide puts the same choice under Microphone, where selecting None turns it off; its Sonoma 14 version has no microphone line. In QuickTime Player, Apple says the microphone choice sits behind the arrow next to the Record button, and Apple says the volume slider lets you monitor it. We did not test which microphone the toolbar picks the first time.

The Mac's own sound. This is the sound from a video, a call or a game, which Apple calls system audio. Here is the disagreement:

• Apple's support page says that to record system audio with the screen recording in macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, you choose Include System Audio under Options. The page is dated 14 September 2026. See Apple's page.
• Apple's Mac User Guide says nothing about system audio. We read its macOS 27, Tahoe 26, Sequoia 15 and Sonoma 14 versions, and none of them mentions it. See the guide.
• Google's AI answer. For the search "how to screen record on mac with audio", the AI answer captured on 2 November 2026 said macOS does not natively capture internal computer or system audio. It named BlackHole and OBS Studio as the way around that. The same answer cited Apple's support page for the microphone steps.

We cannot say which is right for your Mac without knowing your version. Apple's own page is the one that names a setting you can look for: on macOS 27, open Options in the toolbar and look for Include System Audio. We did not open the toolbar to confirm that it is there, so treat Apple's page as a claim, not something we saw. Google's AI answers change from search to search, so you may see something different.

Before macOS 27. Apple's page names no way to record system audio on earlier versions, and it lists no system-audio setting for QuickTime Player, only a microphone. System Sound Apps has what other vendors' own pages say.

System Sound Apps

If your Mac is older than macOS 27, or you want more than the toolbar gives you, an app can record the Mac's own sound. This is what each vendor's own page says, read on 4 November 2026. We did not install or test any of them, and prices are under Cost.

• OBS Studio. Its home page calls it free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, and says it supports macOS 13.0 or newer. Its desktop audio guide says that on macOS 13 and later, OBS Studio 30 has a macOS Audio Capture Source that can take all desktop audio or one app's. That guide asks people not to link to it, so we do not.
• CleanShot X. Its recording page lists recording your microphone and system audio together with the screen. Its pricing page says both plans include the full Mac app and that it needs macOS 13.0 or newer.
• Screen Studio. Its guide says to click the system audio button and choose all apps or a selected one. Its home page says macOS 13.1 or later is recommended.
• ScreenFlow. Telestream's user guide, dated 13 August 2025, says that on macOS 14.2 or later ScreenFlow offers Basic Computer Audio, which does not need the Telestream Audio Capture driver, and Advanced Computer Audio, the older method that does.
• BlackHole. Its page calls it a virtual audio loopback driver that lets apps pass audio to other apps. It is a download whose button reads "Donate $10 & Download", and has a separate option for people who cannot afford to donate. Its README says no kernel extensions or changes to system security are needed, and has a Record System Audio section that uses a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup and then sets BlackHole as the input in a recording app. Follow the vendor's own pages for setup.
• Loopback. Rogue Amoeba's page sells a license for one user on one or more Macs for $99 USD, and its home page says trial mode applies limits. It routes sound between apps, so you still need a recorder to capture it.

BlackHole and Loopback are drivers, not recorders. Apple's pages do not say whether the Screenshot toolbar lists a virtual device as a microphone, so we do not claim it works. Loom and Jumpshare also list system audio in their plan tables; see Cost.

Save Location

Apple's page on recording the screen, dated 14 September 2026, says recordings are saved to your desktop by default. The Mac names the file "Screen Recording [date] at [time].mov". Apple's Mac User Guide says recordings are .mov files and that filenames begin with "Screen Recording" and include the date and time.

Change the folder. Press Shift-Command-5, click Options and look below Save to. The Mac User Guide says to choose one of the preset locations or click Other Location and choose a folder. Apple's pages do not say whether the Mac remembers your choice next time, so check Options before a recording you cannot repeat. The Sonoma 14 version of the guide has no Save to paragraph, so on older Macs look at Options.

The thumbnail. With Show Floating Thumbnail turned on, the Mac User Guide says the thumbnail floats in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds, so you can drag it into a document, mark it up or share it before the recording is saved to the location you specified. Swipe right to save at once, drag it into a document, email, note or Finder window, or click it to trim or share. If a recording seems missing, check that the thumbnail has gone, because Apple describes the file as saved after it.

QuickTime Player. If File > New Screen Recording opens the same toolbar, Save to applies. Apple's support page also describes a separate Screen Recording window, with no Save to choice. For that route, Apple's QuickTime page says QuickTime Player saves recordings to a default location and does not name it. Choose File > Save, enter a name in Export As, and choose where to save it.

If your Desktop is in iCloud. Apple's iCloud page, dated 14 September 2026, says that with Desktop & Documents Folders on, your Desktop and Documents folders are stored in iCloud Drive. On macOS Tahoe 26 or later you find them in the Finder sidebar under Favorites, and on earlier versions in the iCloud section.

Cannot find it. Open Spotlight with Command-Space bar, as Apple's Spotlight page describes (it shows no updated date), and type "Screen Recording". Then check Save to, the thumbnail and the QuickTime window as above. We found no Apple page on recovering a recording that never saved.

Apple's pages do not give a file size per minute or a shortest length, and we did not measure either. For trimming, Apple's Mac User Guide says clicking the thumbnail opens a window where you can trim the recording, and its QuickTime Player page links to a separate page on trimming, which we did not read.

Send It

A .mov from a screen recording is a video file like any other, so the sending routes are the ones we already cover:

• The thumbnail. The Mac User Guide says the recording thumbnail opens a window where you can share it. We did not test which sharing options it lists.
• Email. Short recordings can be attached. For the limits and what to do past them, see Mail Drop on Mac, sending a folder by email and the Outlook limit.
• A cloud link. Upload the file to Google Drive, iCloud Drive or YouTube and share the link. Our guide to turning a video into a link has the steps and the free limits, and Loom Alternatives compares tools that record and share in one step.
• A branded link. Loop, below, records the screen and copies a link when you press Stop.

Apps

The Mac's own recorders cover recording, the microphone and, per Apple's page, the Mac's own sound on macOS 27 or later. An app earns its place for one of three jobs: editing and zoom effects, a recording that arrives as a link, or sound on an older Mac.

• Edit and polish. Screen Studio's FAQ says it records the screen without the cursor and adds the cursor back afterward, so it can smooth the movement and change the cursor's size and shape. CleanShot X lists a video editor with smart zooms, and ScreenFlow describes itself with editing tools for the recorded video.
• Make a link. Loom, ScreenPal, Jumpshare and CleanShot's cloud upload for you. Loom's free plan lists 25 videos and 5 minute screen recordings; ScreenPal's free plan lists a 15 minute recording limit and, in its plan table, 10 hosted videos. Loop does the same on a Mac with your own branding, with the limits in the next section.
• Free and flexible. OBS Studio is free and open source, and records or streams.

Loop

Loop is a Mac app that turns a file into your own branded link. It can also record the screen, which is the one part of it that matters on this page. Loop needs macOS 15 or later to record, and Loop itself needs macOS 14 or later. We read these facts from the current release of the app.

1. Start. Choose File > Record Screen, click Capture in the menu bar panel and then Record, or press Option-Command-R, the default key. Settings > Shortcuts lists it as "Record Screen". Loop's default Option-Command-C shares a screenshot of an area instead.
2. Pick. Loop shows its own picker: drag out an area, click a window, or click Whole Screen. Press Esc or click Cancel to back out. What is outside the area dims while you record.
3. Switch sound and camera. The bar has a microphone switch and a camera switch, both off by default and remembered. Set the microphone before you start, because its switch is not on the bar once recording has begun. The camera appears as a round bubble that is recorded only when it sits inside the recorded part of the screen.
4. Stop. A bar shows Recording, a running clock and a Stop button. Click it, press the record key again, or choose File > Stop Recording. Cancel in the same bar ends the recording and throws the film away; Stop keeps it. The bar and the dim are left out of the film, and the pointer and mouse clicks are shown.
5. Link Copied. The recording goes straight to the share step, Loop copies the link and a Link Copied notification shows. Paste it anywhere. Loop does not send anything for you.

The first time, macOS asks you to allow Screen Recording for Loop in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording, and to allow the microphone and camera if you switch them on. Loop also has to be set up with your Cloudflare account first.

What you can set on a recording link:

• Expires. Captures get their own expiry, 7 days by default, under Settings > Sharing > Captures. Other Loop links default to Never.
• Ask for Name. An option under the same Captures settings that lets you name each capture before it is shared. Otherwise Loop names it after the app in front, with the date and time.
• Reader notes. A reader can click Add Note on the video's own bar to leave a note at a moment in the film.
• Know it was watched. Loop tags a person "Opened" or "Downloaded" and sends a Mac notification once per reader's browser per link, while Loop is running. A Watch Time card shows the average time watched, how many people watched to the end and where most stopped.

Limits

Loop's recorder is narrow on purpose. If any of these matter, use the Mac's own tools or another app:

• No Mac system sound. Loop records your microphone only. Nothing in its code captures the sound coming out of the Mac, so a recording of a video with sound will be silent unless you speak. That is the larger half of "with audio", and Loop cannot do it. For that, see System Sound Apps.
• No trimming. Loop does not edit a recording. A bad take is cancelled or recorded again. There is no pause, no GIF, no timer before recording and no choice of resolution or frame rate.
• No Save to Folder Choice. Loop has no setting to save a recording to a folder. The recording is a temporary file that Loop shares and then removes, whichever way the send went. It then lives as a link in your own Cloudflare storage, for 7 days by default (Settings > Sharing > Captures > Expires), and readers can save a copy while Allow Downloads is on, which it is by default. Loop also has a Loop location in Finder that lists your links, so you should be able to open the film from there; we read that from the app and did not run it.
• macOS 15 or later, on a Mac only. On macOS 14, Loop shows "Recording Needs macOS 15" and screenshots still work. Loop does not record from a phone or Windows, though readers open the link in a web browser.
• Playback is not tested everywhere. The recording is an H.264 .mov. We did not test which web browsers play it.
• We do not promise a maximum length or file size. We did not measure how large a long recording gets.
• No email or phone alert. Notifications are on your Mac only, and only while Loop is running.
• Trial and setup. Loop must be set up with Cloudflare before it records, and a trial that has ended blocks recording until you buy a licence.

For a quick recording you send once, the Screenshot toolbar and any link route above are enough. Loop fits when you record often and want each recording to arrive as a link under your own name, with a view of whether it was watched.

Cost

This table covers the recorders in this post. Apple's pages show no price for the two on the Mac.

These are US dollars for one person, and we could not confirm whether tax is included, on a yearly basis where the vendor shows a yearly price; the bullets give the monthly price where we read it. We did not read monthly prices for CleanShot Pro or ScreenPal. We read every price on 4 November 2026 from a UK address and could not install any of these products, so the table is documentation only.

• CleanShot X. The pricing page says its prices are in USD. Basic is $35 once, with one year of updates and an optional renewal at $19 a year. Pro is $10 a month billed annually ($120 a year) and adds unlimited cloud storage and custom branding. It says there is no trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• Screen Studio. The home page lists one plan with every feature: $9 a month on its Yearly toggle, which it labels Save 69%, and $29 a month on Monthly. Its page data names US dollars. The page does not say how the yearly price is charged, so we do not give a yearly total. New one-time licenses are no longer sold, per its FAQ.
• ScreenFlow. Telestream's page says "Buy starting at $199", and offers a free trial whose exports are watermarked. We could not confirm whether $199 is a one-time price or a sale price, or that the current version runs on macOS 27.
• Loom. The pricing page lists Starter as free, with 25 videos, 5 minute screen recordings and up to 720p, and its plan table lists System audio on all four plans. With the Annually option and a team of one, Business showed $180 a year when we read it (the same page lists $18 a user a month billed monthly), and it adds unlimited recording time and basic editing. The page data names US dollars. See also Loop vs Loom.
• ScreenPal. The plans page lists Free with a 15 minute recording limit and 10 hosted videos in its plan table, although its FAQ says free accounts can host unlimited videos, Deluxe at $4.00 a month paid annually ($48 a year) and Max at $10.00 a month paid annually ($120 a year). Its page data names US dollars. Its plan table marks Record system audio as included on Deluxe, Max and Business and excluded on Free.
• Jumpshare. The pricing page lists Basic as free, with 25 uploads and 5 minute recordings, and says its prices are in USD. Plus is $144 a year, which the page shows as $12 a month on the annual toggle, or $15 a month billed monthly, with unlimited recording time and video and audio editing. Its table lists System audio on all four plans. See also Loop vs Jumpshare.

Over three years, Loom Business is $540, Jumpshare Plus is $432, CleanShot Pro is $360, ScreenPal Deluxe is $144, ScreenPal Max is $360 and CleanShot Basic is $73 if you buy the optional renewal in years two and three. Loop is $49 once.

Loop keeps its files in your own Cloudflare account. Loop's own setup guide says storage is free up to 10 GB a month and includes a step called Add a Card if Asked, so Cloudflare may want a card before storage is on. Past that, Cloudflare's pricing page, updated 30 October 2026, lists $0.015 per GB-month for storage and no charge for data transfer out, so 50 GB kept for a year is about $7.20 for storage after the free 10 GB. That figure leaves out Cloudflare's separate charges for requests.

Loop has a 14-day free trial that begins the first time you run it, and Loop itself asks for no payment to start it, although Cloudflare may ask for a card as above. During the trial your readers see a small "Shared with Loop" badge on their pages, which a licence removes. A licence is $49 once, for one person.