How to Record Your Screen on a Mac (Free, Built-In)

macOS has two built-in screen recorders and neither needs a download. Press Shift + Command + 5 to open a toolbar with "Record Entire Screen" and "Record Selected Portion" buttons, set your options, and click Record; stop from the menu bar or with Command + Control + Esc. QuickTime Player does the same job from File > New Screen Recording if you prefer a window. To capture your voice, pick a microphone under Options. macOS won't record internal system audio by itself — that needs a free routing tool. Recordings save to the Desktop as a .mov you can trim in QuickTime. If you're recording the same walkthrough repeatedly, that's the point to turn it into an interactive demo instead.

Method 1: the Shift-Command-5 toolbar

This is the fastest route on any Mac running Mojave or later.

1. Press Shift + Command + 5.
2. In the toolbar, choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion (drag to set the region).
3. Click Options to set the save location, a countdown timer, whether to show clicks, and — importantly — which microphone to use.
4. Click Record. A stop icon appears in the menu bar.
5. Stop with the menu-bar icon or Command + Control + Esc. A thumbnail appears briefly in the corner; click it to trim or share, or let it save.

Method 2: QuickTime Player

Useful if you want a visible recording window or you're already in QuickTime.

1. Open QuickTime Player.
2. File > New Screen Recording.
3. Click the arrow next to the record button to choose a microphone and toggle click-highlighting.
4. Click record, then click once for full screen or drag to select a region.
5. Stop from the menu bar, then File > Save.

Recording audio

• Your voice: set the microphone under Options (Shift-Command-5) or the arrow menu (QuickTime). Do a five-second test — the built-in mic on some Macs is quieter than you'd expect.
• System audio (sound coming from the Mac): macOS doesn't capture this natively. Install a free virtual audio device such as BlackHole, create an aggregate device in Audio MIDI Setup that combines it with your output, and select it as the recording input. Or use a third-party recorder that bundles system-audio capture.

Trimming and light editing

• Trim the ends: open the .mov in QuickTime, Edit > Trim, drag the yellow handles, click Trim.
• Cut from the middle: Edit > Split Clip at each cut point, select the unwanted segment, delete, then File > Export As to flatten it.
• Shrink the file: File > Export As > 1080p (or 720p) usually cuts size a lot with little visible loss. For more, see how to shrink a screen recording's file size.

When a screen recording should be an interactive demo

A one-off recording — a bug repro, a quick "here's how I did it" for a colleague — is exactly what these tools are for. The trouble starts when you're recording the same walkthrough again and again: for each new prospect, each new hire, each support ticket that asks the same question.

At that point a linear video has real downsides. Viewers can't move at their own pace, can't skip to the part they care about, and can't click anything. Re-recording it every time it changes is its own tax. An interactive demo captures the same click-path once and lets the viewer drive — real interface, a tooltip on each step, jump anywhere:

So: use Shift-Command-5 for anything you'll send once. When you catch yourself recording the same thing a third time, see how to record a software demo and how to make a clickable product demo. To capture just one browser tab rather than the whole screen, see how to record a Chrome tab.