How to record your Mac's screen with internal audio (the system's sound, not your voice)

Quick answer

It depends on your macOS version. On macOS 27 (Golden Gate) or later, the ⇧⌘5 toolbar already records internal audio: pick a recording mode, open Options and turn on ‘Include System Audio’. It’s new in this version, and much of what ranks on Google hasn’t caught up. On macOS 26 or earlier, the option doesn’t exist: the free route is OBS Studio (its macOS capture source has carried desktop audio since macOS 13) or the classic BlackHole driver with a Multi-Output Device; paid recorders with system-audio capture, like Screen Studio or Sgrin, solve it too.

macOS 27 fixed this out of the box (and almost no guide mentions it)

For years, the answer to this question was always the same: the Mac can’t record its own sound, install a driver. The threads that dominate the search — the classic r/MacOS one on recording internal audio, the workaround tutorials — were written before this changed, and today they tell an outdated story.

Apple’s official guide now says it plainly: “To record system audio with the screen recording in macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, choose Include System Audio.” We also verified the label in the interface strings of macOS 27.0.1: ‘Include System Audio’ is there, in the same Options menu as ‘Microphone’, with its own translations in Spanish, German, French and Japanese. The Mac’s built-in user guide (the manual that opens with the system) doesn’t list the option in its Options-menu description yet; Apple’s support article does document it.

QuickTime Player is covered too: for screen recordings it opens this same toolbar (File → New Screen Recording), so the option is available there as well.

Method 1 — The ⇧⌘5 toolbar on macOS 27 (free, nothing to install)

1. Press ⇧⌘5 and pick a recording mode (full screen or a portion).
2. Open Options and turn on ‘Include System Audio’.
3. If you also want your voice, pick a microphone in the same menu.
4. Click Record. The file saves to the Desktop by default, as a .mov video, with the system’s sound included.

If you don’t see the option in Options, your Mac is on macOS 26 or earlier: move on to Method 2.

Method 2 — OBS Studio (free, the answer on macOS 26 and earlier)

If your Mac doesn’t have the native option — or it does but you want control over what gets recorded — OBS Studio is the free route: open source and, on macOS 13 or later, it captures desktop audio without installing anything else.

1. Download OBS Studio from obsproject.com and install it.
2. In your scene, add a macOS Screen Capture source (in OBS 30 or later there’s also a plain Audio Capture source that can pick the whole desktop or a single application).
3. The source shows up in the audio mixer with its own volume: that’s the system audio.
4. Play something on the Mac and watch that source’s level meter move.
5. Click Start Recording. The resulting file carries the screen video and the internal audio.

Details worth knowing, from the official OBS guide: always use the current macOS capture source (the old ‘Window’ and ‘Display’ sources are deprecated and carry no audio); on OBS 28 and 29, hiding the screen capture source removes its audio too; and on macOS 12 or earlier OBS needs a virtual audio driver — in that case, Method 3.

Method 3 — BlackHole + the Mac’s recorder (free, the classic)

Before all of the above, this was the recipe, and it still works when you want to record with the system’s own tool on a Mac without the native option. BlackHole is a free, open-source virtual audio driver (existential.audio): it presents itself to macOS as an audio input and output device, with no kernel extensions.

1. Download BlackHole 2ch from its official page (2, 16 and 64-channel versions exist; for recording system sound, 2 channels are plenty) and install the pkg. If macOS blocks the install, approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Utilities, or search for it with ⇧⌘Space) and create a Multi-Output Device that includes BlackHole 2ch and your speakers or headphones. Select that device as the Mac’s sound output: the audio keeps reaching your ears and BlackHole. Skip this step and you’ll hear nothing while recording.
3. Press ⇧⌘5, pick a recording mode, open Options and under Microphone select BlackHole 2ch. The system will record as “voice” everything entering through BlackHole — that is, the internal audio.
4. Record. The video will come out with the system’s sound as its only audio track.

Two honest warnings: BlackHole’s FAQ documents that macOS can’t change the volume of a multi-output device with the volume keys — you adjust it per device in Audio MIDI Setup — and this method captures the Mac’s whole output at once, not individual applications. Zero-cost, but friction.

Method 4 — Loopback, if you want per-application audio routing

Loopback (Rogue Amoeba, $99 one-time) does what BlackHole does, but with a graphical interface: virtual devices that combine specific apps and inputs, without touching Audio MIDI Setup. It’s the podcasters’ tool. For routing specific apps’ audio, it’s the most comfortable option; for this guide’s case, honestly, it’s more than you need: BlackHole does the essential part for free.

Recording with apps that have system audio built in

If you record demos regularly, some recorders integrate internal-audio capture and spare you all of the above:

• Screen Studio ($29/mo or $9/mo billed yearly — about $108/yr —; it no longer sells one-time licenses to new customers) records your Mac’s sound alongside the microphone and webcam, and on top of that it treats the voice: on-device noise reduction, a podcast voice mode, transcripts. Now that macOS 27 captures system audio natively, its edge isn’t the capture — it’s the treatment and the editing in the same app.
• Sgrin ($29.99 once, Early Adopter license that includes v1.x and v2; $59.99 afterwards) has a ‘System Audio’ toggle next to the microphone’s in the sources row, off by default — you turn it on before recording and that’s it, no drivers or multi-output devices. System audio and the microphone are recorded as independent audio tracks in the same file, so you can adjust them separately on export. It requires macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon; a 6 MB download with a 14-day trial and no card. For anyone still on macOS 26, where the native option doesn’t exist, this kind of toggle is the friction-free route.

An honest concession: if all you need is for the recording to carry the system’s sound, buy nothing — macOS 27 and OBS solve it for free. The case for these apps isn’t the audio, it’s everything after it: Sgrin turns the recording into a demo with editable click-driven zooms and a device mockup in a single step; Screen Studio does its own with its editor. Internal audio is one piece of the package, not the argument.

Side by side

Tool	Price (Oct 26, 2026)	Internal audio	How it gets it	Requirements
⇧⌘5 / QuickTime	Free (built in)	Yes on macOS 27+ · No on macOS 26 or earlier	Options → ‘Include System Audio’ (new in macOS 27)	The option, macOS 27+
OBS Studio	Free, open source	Yes	macOS capture source (ScreenCaptureKit); on OBS 30+, per-application capture	macOS 13+
BlackHole + Mac’s recorder	Free, open source (donations)	Yes	Virtual audio driver + Multi-Output Device; BlackHole chosen as the ‘microphone’ in Options	macOS 10.10+, Intel and Apple Silicon
Loopback	$99 once	Yes	Graphical per-app routing, no manual Audio MIDI setup	n/a
Screen Studio	$29/mo · $108/yr	Yes	System-audio toggle in the recorder	n/a
Sgrin	$29.99 once (Early Adopter; $59.99 afterwards)	Yes	’System Audio’ toggle next to the microphone’s, off by default; system and mic on separate tracks	macOS 26+ · Apple Silicon · 6 MB

Which one, in a line each

• You’re on macOS 27 and want the recording as-is: the ⇧⌘5 toolbar.
• macOS 26 or earlier, or you want control over what’s captured: OBS.
• You want the system’s own recorder on macOS 26 or earlier: BlackHole + Multi-Output Device, knowing the volume lives in Audio MIDI Setup.
• You need per-app audio or podcast routing: Loopback.
• You record demos with voice treatment and don’t mind the subscription: Screen Studio.
• You record demos with editable click-driven zooms and prefer one-time: Sgrin, on macOS 26+.

If the underlying question is the licensing model rather than the audio, the dated one-time versus subscription table for all these recorders is in Screen recorders for Mac: one-time purchase. And if what you care about is the cursor — the built-in recorder’s other big caveat — that’s in How to hide (or smooth) the cursor in a Mac screen recording.

Sources (checked on October 26, 2026)

• Apple, How to record the screen on Mac: “To record system audio with the screen recording in macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, choose Include System Audio.” Spanish version: Cómo grabar la pantalla en Mac.
• macOS 27.0.1 (build 26A434), local inspection of the capture toolbar’s interface strings: ‘Include System Audio’ and ‘Microphone’ present in English, Spanish, German, French and Japanese; ‘Multi-Output Device’ verified in Audio MIDI Setup’s strings in the same languages.
• OBS Project, macOS Desktop Audio Capture Guide — macOS capture source with audio in the mixer (macOS 13+), per-application capture on OBS 30+, alternatives for macOS 12 and earlier.
• BlackHole: official site and GitHub README — free, open source, 2ch/16ch/64ch builds, macOS 10.10+, no kernel extensions; FAQ: macOS can’t change a multi-output device’s volume.
• Rogue Amoeba, Loopback purchase page — $99 once, single-user license for one or more Macs.
• Screen Studio: pricing — $29/mo, $9/mo yearly, no one-time for new purchases; Mac sound recording described on its home page.
• Sgrin: released 0.9.1 — the ‘System Audio’ toggle (localized labels in 5 languages) and the persistent systemAudioEnabled preference are in the official DMG’s binary, and the microphone and system audio are written as independent AAC tracks in that version’s code (verified on October 26, 2026); price, 14-day no-card trial and requirements per sgrin.app.
• r/MacOS thread on recording internal audio on a MacBook while screen recording — the classic workaround, predating macOS 27.