How to Screen Record on a Mac With Audio (2026 Guide)

You need to show someone something on your Mac. A bug, a new feature, a quick how-to for a colleague. You press a few keys, record, and send the file. Then the questions start: Why is there no sound? Why is the text so small? Can you cut the first minute?

This guide covers every practical way to record your screen on a Mac in 2026, what each one can and can't do with audio, and how to get from a raw recording to something worth sharing.

The quick answer

Press Shift-Command-5. A small toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen. Choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, then click Record. To stop, click the stop button in the menu bar or press Command-Control-Esc.

That's enough for a silent clip. If you need your voice, the sound from an app, or a video you'd put in front of customers, read on.

Method 1: The Screenshot toolbar (built in)

Since macOS Mojave, screen recording has been part of the Screenshot toolbar. It's free, always there, and fine for quick clips.

1. Press Shift-Command-5.
2. Pick Record Entire Screen (the solid rectangle with a circle) or Record Selected Portion (the dashed rectangle with a circle). For a portion, drag the frame around the part you want.
3. Click Options to choose:
   • Save to: Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages or another folder.
   • Timer: none, 5 or 10 seconds, so you can get ready.
   • Microphone: the mic to record your voice with. It's set to None by default, which is why many first recordings are silent.
   • Show Mouse Clicks: draws a circle wherever you click.
4. Click Record.
5. Stop with the stop button in the menu bar, or Command-Control-Esc.

A thumbnail slides in at the bottom right. Click it to trim the start and end, or let it disappear and the file is saved as a .mov.

Good for: a quick, silent clip of a bug or a UI detail.

Not good for: sound from apps before macOS 27, anything long, or anything you'd publish.

Method 2: QuickTime Player

Open QuickTime Player and choose File › New Screen Recording. On current macOS this opens the same Screenshot toolbar, so the options are the same.

Where QuickTime helps is afterwards. Open the recording in QuickTime and you can:

• Trim with Edit › Trim (Command-T).
• Split a clip into parts and delete the ones you don't want.
• Export at a smaller resolution with File › Export As.

QuickTime also records an iPhone or iPad screen: connect it with a cable, choose File › New Movie Recording, then pick the device from the menu next to the record button.

The first-time permission

The first time you record, macOS asks for permission. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen Recording (called Screen & System Audio Recording on newer versions of macOS) and switch on the app you're recording with. Most apps need to be quit and reopened afterwards.

If your recording shows only the wallpaper and empty windows, this permission is the reason.

The audio problem: your voice vs. your Mac's sound

There are two different kinds of audio, and the built-in tools treat them very differently.

Your voice (microphone). Easy. Choose a microphone under Options in the Screenshot toolbar. An external USB mic or a headset will sound far better than the built-in one in a noisy room.

Your Mac's sound (system audio). This is the sound of a video playing, a notification, an app's sound effects or the other side of a call. Whether the built-in tools can record it depends on your version of macOS:

• macOS 27 Golden Gate or later: yes. In the Screenshot toolbar, open Options and choose Include System Audio.
• macOS 26 Tahoe and earlier: no. The Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime record from a microphone only. If you've ever recorded a demo of a video app and ended up with silence, that's why.

Not sure which you have? Choose Apple menu › About This Mac. On macOS 26 or earlier, you have two ways around it.

Option A: A virtual audio device

Free, open-source virtual audio drivers such as BlackHole create a fake "speaker" that another app can record from.

1. Install the driver and restart audio (or your Mac) if asked.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications › Utilities).
3. Click + and create a Multi-Output Device that includes your speakers or headphones and the virtual device, so you can still hear what you're recording.
4. Set your Mac's sound output to the Multi-Output Device.
5. In the Screenshot toolbar's Options, choose the virtual device as the microphone.

It works, but it has catches. You can't change the volume with the keyboard while a Multi-Output Device is selected. You get system audio or your mic, not both, unless you build an Aggregate Device too. And you have to remember to switch your output back afterwards.

Option B: A recorder that captures system audio itself

Since macOS 13, apps can record system audio directly, without a virtual driver. Most dedicated screen recorders now do this, ZumCast included. Switch on System audio (or press A in its recorder) and the sound your Mac plays is saved on its own track, next to your microphone. You can change each track's volume later, which matters when an app's sound is louder than your voice.

Recording one window instead of the whole screen

Full-screen recordings on a large display produce tiny, unreadable text once they're watched in a small player. Recording one window, at a fixed size, fixes most of that.

• With the built-in toolbar on macOS 26 or later, choose Record Selected Window. On earlier versions, use Record Selected Portion and drag the frame tightly around the window.
• In ZumCast, press 2 in the recorder and click the window. You can resize it to 1280×720, 1440×900 or 1920×1080 first, so every take is the same size and the framing matches from video to video.

From raw recording to a video people finish

A raw screen recording is honest but hard to watch. The cursor is tiny, the important click happens in a corner, and there are long pauses while you think. Here's what makes the biggest difference, roughly in order:

1. Cut the dead air. Pauses and "um"s feel twice as long to a viewer as they did to you.
2. Zoom in on what matters. A zoom on the button you click does more for clarity than any voiceover.
3. Make the cursor visible. A larger cursor and a click effect help people follow along.
4. Add captions. Plenty of people watch with the sound off, especially in social feeds.
5. Export for where it's going. YouTube wants 16:9, Shorts and Reels want 9:16, and a LinkedIn feed works well with 1:1.

You can do all of this in a full video editor, by hand. Or you can use a recorder that does it as you go. In ZumCast, zooms on every click, a smooth cursor and scenes are already there when you stop recording. Then you ask Zumi, its AI editor, for the rest in plain words, for example "cut the pauses and make it vertical". Zumi shows you its plan on the timeline before anything changes, and it runs on your Mac rather than in the cloud. Export presets cover YouTube (1080p60), YouTube 4K, X, LinkedIn (1:1), Shorts and Reels (9:16), a GIF for docs and a master file.

Keep file sizes sensible

Screen recordings can get big fast. Three settings matter most:

• Codec. HEVC (H.265) files are about half the size of H.264 at the same quality. H.264 plays everywhere, including older editors and some web players.
• Frame rate. 30 fps is plenty for most software demos. Use 60 fps for fast motion: scrolling, animation, games.
• Resolution. 1080p is the sweet spot for most videos. Record at 4K only if you plan to zoom in a lot or publish in 4K.

Troubleshooting

The recording is black, or shows only the wallpaper. The app doesn't have Screen Recording permission. Turn it on in System Settings › Privacy & Security, then quit and reopen the app.

There's no sound at all. Check that a microphone is selected under Options; it defaults to None. For sound from apps, choose Include System Audio on macOS 27 or later, or see the system audio section above.

A streaming video records as a black box. Many streaming services protect their video, and macOS blanks it out in recordings. That's expected and can't be worked around.

The recording stopped by itself. Check your free disk space. Screen recordings can use several gigabytes an hour.

My notifications show up in the recording. Turn on a Focus such as Do Not Disturb before you start. Some recorders, ZumCast included, can hide notifications and desktop icons while you record.

Which method should you use?

• A silent clip for a colleague: Shift-Command-5. Done in ten seconds.
• A clip with your voice: Shift-Command-5, with a microphone chosen under Options.
• A recording with app sound: Include System Audio on macOS 27 or later. On earlier versions, a recorder that captures system audio, or a virtual audio driver if you're happy to set it up.
• An iPhone screen: QuickTime's New Movie Recording, or a recorder that takes iPhone as a source.
• A demo, tutorial or launch video: a recorder that handles zooms, cuts, captions and formats for you, so the first take is the one you publish.

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ZumCast is a Mac screen recorder with an AI editor that runs on your Mac. It records your screen, camera, microphone and system audio, adds zooms on every click, and makes the vertical clip, GIF and step-by-step guide from the same take. The Basic version is free; Pro is a one-time purchase. Download it free.