How to Record Your Mac Screen

Your Mac has a built-in screen recorder that captures any portion of your screen as a video — no extra software needed.

In this guide (5 steps):

1.Open the Screenshot Toolbar
2.Choose What to Record
3.Set Audio Options (If Needed)
4.Start and Stop Recording
5.Find and Share Your Recording

Open the Screenshot Toolbar

~21s

Press Shift + Command + 5 simultaneously. The Screenshot toolbar appears at the bottom of your screen with five icons: capture entire screen, capture window, capture selection, record entire screen, and record selection. The last two icons (with a dot in the corner) are for screen recording.

Quick Tip

On older Macs (pre-Mojave macOS), use QuickTime Player instead: open QuickTimeFile menuNew Screen Recording.

Choose What to Record

~15s

Click the fourth icon to record your entire screen, or the fifth icon to record a portion. For partial recording, click and drag to draw the area you want to record. The toolbar stays visible so you can see your selection before starting.

Set Audio Options (If Needed)

~16s

In the toolbar, click "Options." Under "Microphone," choose your microphone (Built-in Microphone, or an external mic) if you want to record your voice for narration. Choose "None" if you want video only with no audio. Also in Options: choose where to save the file (Desktop, Documents, etc.).

Start and Stop Recording

~25s

Click the "Record" button in the toolbar. Recording begins immediately (no countdown by default). A small recording indicator appears in the menu bar (top of screen). When you're done, click that menu bar icon to stop. Alternatively, press Command + Control + Esc to stop recording.

Quick Tip

You can also stop recording by pressing Command + Shift + 5 again and clicking Stop, or by clicking the Stop button (square icon) that appears in the menu bar while recording.

Find and Share Your Recording

~19s

The recording saves to your Desktop (or wherever you set in Options) as a .mov file. A thumbnail preview appears briefly in the bottom-right corner — click it to trim the beginning or end before saving. Double-click the .mov file to watch it in QuickTime. Share by email, Messages, AirDrop, or upload to any cloud service.

You Did It!

You've completed: How to Record Your Mac Screen

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macOS has a built-in screen recorder that captures whatever is on your screen as a video file. It's part of the Screenshot toolbar in macOS Mojave and newer, and it's free with no time limits or watermarks.

You can record your entire screen or just a portion of it. Audio can be included (from a microphone, for narration) or excluded (video only). The recording saves as a .mov video file that can be played by QuickTime, shared by email or message, or uploaded anywhere.

Screen recording on Mac is useful for: creating instructional videos or tutorials, recording a software demonstration, capturing a video call for your own reference, documenting a software bug for tech support, or saving content from a streaming service (where allowed).

There are two main ways to start a screen recording: the keyboard shortcut or QuickTime Player. Both are built into every Mac. The keyboard shortcut is faster once you know it. QuickTime Player's New Screen Recording option is more visual.

The Screenshot toolbar (Shift + Command + 5) gives you all screenshot and screen recording options in one place. This is the recommended method because it shows you all options visually before you start.

The resulting video file appears on your Desktop by default. You can change where files are saved in the toolbar settings. A small thumbnail preview appears in the bottom-right corner after recording — click it to immediately trim or share the video, or wait and it disappears, saving to your chosen location.

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