How to record audio on a Mac

"Record audio on a Mac" means three different things, and the reason people get stuck is that macOS handles them very differently.

• Your voice through the microphone. Built in, easy.
• The sound the Mac is playing, a call, a video, a stream.
• Both at once, which is what recording a meeting actually requires.

Short answer: Voice Memos and QuickTime both record a microphone with no setup. Neither records the audio your Mac is playing. Capturing that, on its own or alongside your microphone, needs software built for it and a macOS permission you grant once.

Recording your microphone

Two applications are already installed.

Voice Memos is the simplest. Open it, press record, stop. Recordings stay in the app, and sync to your other Apple devices if iCloud is on.

On recent versions it can also show a transcript of what it recorded, which for a single spoken note may be all you need. Whether it appears depends on your macOS version, your Mac and the language, so look before assuming it is missing.

QuickTime Player does the same through File, then New Audio Recording, and lets you pick the input device and quality. Useful when you want the file saved somewhere specific rather than inside an app's library.

Either is fine for a voice note, an interview in the room, or a lecture where the sound is in the air.

To get a Voice Memos recording out as a file, drag it to the Finder or use the share button. It arrives as an .m4a.

Recording what the Mac is playing

This is where it stops being built in.

macOS does not let any app capture system audio without permission, and neither Voice Memos nor QuickTime offers it at all. Historically people solved this with a virtual audio device that pretends to be a speaker and a microphone at once, routing sound back into a recorder. That works, it is fiddly, and it changes your audio output while it is set up.

Newer macOS releases have started adding system audio to the built-in screen recorder, so check your own version before reaching for anything. That records the screen as well, which is a different job from capturing audio alone.

The alternative is an app with system audio capture built in, which macOS gates behind a permission prompt. AI Transcribe on the Mac does this: it records the microphone and the sound the Mac is playing together, keeping them on separate channels, which is exactly the shape of a recorded call.

The permission is worth expecting, because it is not obvious. macOS asks the first time a capture actually runs rather than when you install anything, and it may need approving in System Settings before it works.

Recording both at once

A meeting is the common case: your voice from the room, everyone else from the speakers. One track of each in one file.

Once the recording exists, the audio is only half the job. Turning it into something you can use means a transcript with the speakers separated, and from there notes or a summary.

What none of this covers

The screen. Recording audio and recording the screen are separate jobs, and an audio recorder captures no slides and no shared document. macOS has its own screen recorder for that.

Common questions

Where do Voice Memos recordings live? Inside the app, and on iCloud if enabled. Drag one to the desktop to get a file, or use File, then Export.

What format do I get? Voice Memos produces .m4a. QuickTime produces .m4a too. Both import into transcription tools without conversion.

How long can I record? Long sessions are limited by disk space, and by anything that interrupts the app. The firmer limit comes later: many transcription services cap a single file, ours at three hours.

Can I record a phone call? Not a mobile call, unless it is running through the Mac. A call on the Mac itself, like FaceTime or a meeting app, is system audio and works the same as anything else the Mac plays. Consent laws apply, and they differ by country and state.