How to Screen Record on MacBook Pro (2026)

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Screen Record With the Screenshot Toolbar

Every MacBook Pro has a built-in screen recorder accessible through the Screenshot toolbar. No app download needed. It records your screen as a .MOV video file and saves it to your Desktop (or wherever you’ve configured screenshots to save).

1. Press Shift + Command + 5 to open the Screenshot toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
2. Choose one of two recording options: “Record Entire Screen” (fourth icon) or “Record Selected Portion” (fifth icon).
3. If you chose “Record Selected Portion,” drag the handles to resize the recording area.
4. Click “Record” to start. A stop button appears in the menu bar at the top of your screen.
5. Do whatever you need to record.
6. Click the stop button in the menu bar (or press Shift + Command + 5 and click “Stop Recording”).
7. A thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner. Click it to preview and trim, or let it save automatically.

The recording captures everything on your screen at native resolution and 60 fps. File sizes run about 30 to 60 MB per minute depending on screen activity. A 10-minute tutorial recording typically produces a 300 to 600 MB file.

How to Record Screen With Audio

By default, screen recording captures no audio at all. You need to enable audio separately, and macOS handles microphone audio and system audio differently.

Record Your Voice (Microphone Audio)

1. Press Shift + Command + 5 to open the Screenshot toolbar.
2. Click “Options.”
3. Under “Microphone,” select your MacBook’s built-in microphone (or an external microphone if one is connected).
4. Start the recording as normal.

The recording now captures your voice through the selected microphone along with the screen content. This is the setup for recording tutorials, walkthroughs, presentations with narration, or any content where you’re talking over what’s on screen.

Record System Audio (App Sounds)

Recording system audio (music, video playback, game sounds, notification chimes) is trickier. The built-in screen recorder does not capture system audio natively on macOS. You only get microphone audio by default. To record what your Mac is actually playing through its speakers, you need a virtual audio driver.

BlackHole (free, open-source): BlackHole is a virtual audio driver that creates a loopback device. Install it, then set up a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup to send audio to both your speakers and BlackHole simultaneously. Select BlackHole as the microphone source in the Screenshot toolbar’s Options menu. Your recording now captures system audio.

We also wrote a hands-on guide on 4K monitors for Mac Mini that you might find useful.

1. Download and install BlackHole from its GitHub page (the 2-channel version is sufficient).
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (search for it in Spotlight).
3. Click the “+” icon in the bottom left and select “Create Multi-Output Device.”
4. Check both “MacBook Pro Speakers” (or your preferred output) and “BlackHole 2ch.”
5. Set this Multi-Output Device as your system output in System Settings, then Sound, then Output.
6. In the Screenshot toolbar, click Options and select “BlackHole 2ch” as the microphone.
7. Start recording. System audio is now captured.

After recording, switch your audio output back to MacBook Pro Speakers. The Multi-Output Device doesn’t have its own volume control, which makes adjusting volume awkward during recording.

Record With QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player offers the same screen recording capability with a slightly different interface. It’s useful if you prefer a traditional app window over the floating toolbar.

1. Open QuickTime Player (search in Spotlight or find it in Applications).
2. Go to File, then “New Screen Recording.”
3. The Screenshot toolbar appears (same as Shift + Command + 5).
4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Record button to select your microphone and other options.
5. Click “Record” and capture your screen.
6. Click the stop button in the menu bar when finished.

QuickTime saves recordings as .MOV files. After recording, you can trim the video (Edit, then Trim) and export at different quality levels (File, then Export As, then choose 4K, 1080p, 720p, or 480p). The lower resolution exports produce smaller files for sharing.

Best Free Screen Recording Apps for Mac

OBS Studio is the most powerful free option. It captures system audio natively (with the macOS audio capture plugin), supports multiple scenes, adds webcam overlays, and exports to multiple formats. The learning curve is steeper than the built-in tools, but for frequent recording or streaming, OBS is worth learning.

Kap is lightweight and fast. Right-click the menu bar icon, select a recording area, and go. It exports to GIF, MP4, WebM, and APNG. The GIF export makes it ideal for recording short demonstrations for documentation, Slack messages, or GitHub issues.

Loom records your screen plus your webcam in a floating bubble, then immediately generates a shareable link. The free tier limits you to 25 videos and 5 minutes each. It’s designed for quick async communication rather than polished content production.

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How to Edit Screen Recordings

For basic trimming, click the recording thumbnail when it appears after stopping, or open the file in QuickTime Player and use Edit, then Trim. Drag the yellow handles to set the start and end points, then click “Trim.”

For more involved editing, iMovie (free from Apple) handles cuts, transitions, titles, voiceover, and background music. Import your screen recording, arrange clips on the timeline, and export. iMovie is adequate for tutorials and presentations.

For professional editing with annotations, callouts, zoom effects, and cursor highlighting, ScreenFlow ($169) and Camtasia ($250) are the standard tools. They’re designed specifically for screen recording post-production and include features like automatic zoom-to-click, animated callouts, and chapter markers.

Why is my screen recording blurry?

The built-in recorder captures at your screen’s native resolution, so the recording itself should be sharp. Blurriness usually happens during sharing: email and messaging apps compress video, reducing quality. Upload the original .MOV file to Google Drive, Dropbox, or YouTube for full-quality viewing. If recording a “Selected Portion,” make sure the selection area is large enough – a tiny recording area produces a low-resolution video when played back at full screen.

Is there a time limit on screen recording?

No time limit. The built-in recorder and QuickTime can record for hours as long as you have storage space. A one-hour recording at native resolution uses roughly 3 to 6 GB depending on screen content. Check your available storage before long recordings (Apple menu, then About This Mac, then Storage).

How do I record just one window?

The built-in recorder doesn’t have a “record one window” mode, but you can approximate it. Use “Record Selected Portion” and drag the selection to match the window’s dimensions. Alternatively, use OBS Studio, which lets you select a specific window as the recording source – only that window’s content is captured regardless of what’s in front of or behind it.

Sources

Apple – Record Screen on Mac | OBS – OBS Studio | BlackHole – BlackHole Audio