How to Record Screen with Audio on Mac (2026 Guide)

Why macOS Blocks Internal Audio (And What Changed in Ventura)

Short answer: Apple's Core Audio architecture prevents third-party apps from tapping into the system audio pipeline. This is a deliberate security decision. Without it, any app with microphone access could silently record your video calls, password readouts from VoiceOver, or audio from banking apps.

“Internal audio” means any sound your Mac produces: Spotify playback, YouTube audio, system notifications, game sounds, the audio track of a video call. That audio matters more than most creators realize. When your screen recording lacks the audio your viewer expects—the click sounds, the notification chimes, the music in the app you are demonstrating—they lose context and stop watching. Research from Texas Tech University found that degraded audio quality lowers perceived credibility of the speaker and the content itself (TTU, 2023).

There are four practical ways to capture internal audio on Mac today. They differ in cost, setup time, and whether editing is included. I tested each one from a clean install and ranked them from simplest-but-limited to most-complete.

Method 1: Built-in Screenshot Tool (Microphone Only)

Bottom line: The macOS Screenshot Toolbar (Cmd+Shift+5) records your screen with microphone audio only. It cannot capture internal audio—no system sounds, no app audio, no music playback. Available on every Mac since macOS 10.14 Mojave with zero installation required.

This is the right choice when you only need voice narration over your screen—a quick walkthrough for a colleague, a bug report with verbal context, or a rough draft before re-recording. macOS holds roughly 15% of the global desktop market (StatCounter, 2025), meaning tens of millions of Mac users have this tool already and a surprising number do not know it exists. I have watched coworkers download third-party apps just to record a mic-over-screen walkthrough they could have done with Cmd+Shift+5.

How to Record with Microphone Audio

Method 2: BlackHole + QuickTime (Free, 6-Step Setup)

Bottom line: BlackHole is a free, open-source virtual audio driver with 18,700+ GitHub stars (GitHub) that routes your Mac's internal audio into any recording application. Combined with QuickTime, it is the most widely recommended free method for internal audio capture. The catch: setup requires configuring Audio MIDI Setup and manually switching your system output device before and after each recording session.

I timed myself doing this from scratch on a clean macOS 15.3 install. The brew install blackhole-2ch part took about 45 seconds. The Audio MIDI Setup dance took another 3 minutes following the steps below. The part that trips people up most—and I say this because I have done it to myself more than once—is forgetting to switch your audio output back to speakers afterward. You close QuickTime, go about your day, and then wonder why your AirPods sound wrong three hours later.

Step-by-Step Setup

Method 3: OBS Studio (Free, Native Audio on macOS 13+)

Bottom line: OBS Studio is a free, open-source recording and streaming application with 71,300+ GitHub stars (GitHub). On macOS 13 Ventura and later, OBS captures internal audio natively through Apple's ScreenCaptureKit API—no BlackHole, no virtual driver, no Audio MIDI Setup. On macOS 12 or earlier, you still need a virtual audio driver.

OBS was built for live streamers who need multi-source scenes, custom transitions, and fine-grained encoding controls. That power comes with real complexity. The first time I opened OBS to record a 90-second tutorial, I spent more time reading about Scenes vs Sources than I did actually recording. If those features mean nothing to you, the interface will feel like it was designed for someone else—because it was. But for a free tool that captures both internal audio and microphone on a modern Mac without installing extra drivers, nothing else comes close in 2026.

Setting Up OBS for Screen + Audio Recording

For a deeper look at simpler alternatives, see our OBS alternatives guide. Recording a 2-minute tutorial should not require learning scene management.

Method 4: ScreenBuddy (Record + Edit, One Checkbox)

Bottom line: ScreenBuddy sidesteps the virtual audio driver problem entirely. It uses the browser's getDisplayMedia API with audio sharing. When you start recording, macOS shows its native screen sharing picker with a “Share audio” checkbox—check it, and internal audio flows into your recording. No Audio MIDI Setup, no output device switching, no driver installation.

What separates ScreenBuddy from BlackHole and OBS is what happens after you stop recording. Both of those tools hand you a raw video file that you then open in a separate editor. ScreenBuddy opens its built-in editor immediately—add auto-zoom on clicks, draw annotations, apply gradient backgrounds, trim clips, export to MP4 or GIF. When you are producing recordings every week, cutting out the app-switching step between recording and editing saves real time. I used to record in OBS, drag the file to Final Cut, make two cuts, export again. Now it is one app, start to finish.

How ScreenBuddy Captures Audio

Side-by-Side Comparison: All 4 Methods

This table compares the two things that matter most when recording screen with audio on Mac: how each method handles audio capture, and what you can do with the recording afterward.

My recommendation: If you want free and are on macOS 13 or later, go with OBS Studio—it gives you the most capable recording with native internal audio capture. If you want the shortest path from recording to a polished, edited video with audio and do not want to learn scene management or configure virtual audio drivers, ScreenBuddy removes every friction point for $29.99 one-time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Record Screen with Audio on Mac — One Checkbox

ScreenBuddy captures internal audio natively—no BlackHole, no Audio MIDI Setup, no driver configuration. Record, edit with zoom effects and annotations, export to MP4 or GIF. $29.99 one-time.