How to control individual app volume on a Mac

The short version: macOS has no built-in per-app volume mixer. To set one app louder or quieter than another, you either lean on each app's own volume slider by hand, or you install a dedicated mixer that adds the system-wide control Apple never shipped. This guide covers every real option in 2026 — what's free, where each one stops working, and the fastest way to ride app levels without touching your mouse.

If you came from Windows, the missing feature is obvious within a day. Windows has had a Volume Mixer — one panel, one slider per app — since Vista. macOS still routes everything through a single master output. Turn the system down to take a call and your music ducks with it. There's no native way to say "Spotify at 30%, Zoom at 100%, browser muted."

Option 1 — Use each app's own volume (free, tedious)

Most media apps carry their own internal level. Spotify, YouTube and other web players, VLC, music apps, and conferencing tools all have a slider somewhere. You can mix by hand: drop Spotify in its own window, mute a browser tab, nudge Zoom. It costs nothing.

The catch is that it's manual and scattered. Every app puts its slider in a different place, some apps (alerts, system sounds, games) have no slider at all, and you're hunting through windows every time the mix changes. For an app or two it's fine. Across a working day of calls, music, and streams, it's the exact friction this whole category exists to remove.

Option 2 — A per-app volume mixer (the real fix)

A dedicated mixer sits at the OS audio layer and gives every running app its own level in one place — the thing macOS is missing. This is the only approach that works for apps without their own slider, and the only one that lets you set a mix once and recall it. Tools in this space include Background Music (free, open source), SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba (paid, deep), and Fader (paid, keyboard-first).

They differ less in whether they control per-app volume and more in how you reach the controls. That's the part that decides whether you actually use it twenty times a day or forget it's installed.

Why the keyboard matters more than you'd think

Every mixer above can set a level. The difference you feel is how long it takes to get there. A menu-bar list means: move to the menu bar, click the icon, find the row, drag the bar, dismiss. That's five actions for a volume change you make constantly.

Fader's bet is that the fastest controller you own is the one already under your hands. You hit a toggle hotkey, the keyboard becomes a mixer — the Q/A/Z column is one app, W/S/X the next — and you ride levels with letter keys without ever leaving what you're doing. For the apps you adjust all day, that's the gap between "I have a mixer installed" and "I actually use it."

How to mute a single app instantly

Muting one app without touching the others is the most common ask. If the app has its own mute (Zoom's ⌘⇧A, Spotify, browser tab mute), use it — it's free and immediate. For anything else, or to mute any app from a single global shortcut no matter what's focused, bind a per-app mute key in a mixer. In Fader you assign a mute key per channel, so "silence the browser" is one keystroke from inside any other app.

Routing: a related problem worth knowing about

Volume's close cousin is output routing — sending one app to a different device. Music to AirPods, calls to a headset, alerts to the speakers. macOS sets one output for everything; per-app routing also needs a third-party tool. If that's your actual need, read how to send an app's audio to a different output on Mac.

Bottom line

macOS gives you one master volume and nothing finer. For a quick one-off, an app's own slider is free and fine. For a real per-app mix you set once and reach in a keystroke — especially across calls, music, and streams all day — a dedicated mixer is the fix. If reaching the control fast is what you care about, that's exactly what Fader is built for.