Can you have different volumes for different apps on a Mac?

Yes — you can have a different volume for each app on a Mac, just not with the controls Apple ships. The system volume keys and the Sound menu move one master level that every app shares, so on their own they can't hold Spotify at 30% while a call stays at 100%. You get per-app volumes one of two ways: use each app's own internal slider by hand, or install a per-app mixer that gives every running app its own level in one place.

It's a fair question to ask, because the answer feels like it should be "obviously yes." Every app has sound; surely each one has a volume? On Windows it does — the Volume Mixer has shown one slider per app since Windows Vista. On a Mac, the menu bar and the F-keys give you exactly one slider, and it governs the whole machine. So the honest answer is: different per-app volume is absolutely possible, but it lives outside the built-in controls.

Why the Mac only seems to have one volume

macOS mixes the audio from every running app down into a single combined stream, then applies your master volume to that finished stream on its way to the speakers or headphones. The per-app mixing has already happened by the time the volume keys get involved, so they ride the final stage — which is why pressing volume-down ducks music, the call, the game, and the notification ping all at once. There is no native screen that breaks that combined stream back apart into one slider per application.

That single-master design is genuinely simpler and it rarely gets in the way — until the day you're on a call with music going and a video buffering in a browser tab, and you want three different levels at once. For the full explanation of why turning the Mac down lowers everything together, see why your Mac volume lowers everything at once.

The free way: each app's own slider

The no-cost path is to ignore the system volume and lean on the volume controls inside individual apps. Spotify has a slider. YouTube and other web players have one. VLC, Apple Music, and most conferencing tools each carry their own level. You can set Spotify low, leave Zoom high, mute a browser tab, and end up with genuinely different volumes per app without installing anything.

The limits show up fast. Every app hides its slider in a different place, so you're hunting through windows each time the balance changes. Plenty of apps — system alerts, many games, some Electron utilities — have no volume control of their own, so this method simply can't touch them. And nothing is saved: relaunch the apps and you set the whole balance again by hand. For one or two apps it's fine. Across a working day it's the exact friction the next option exists to remove.

The real fix: a per-app volume mixer

A per-app mixer sits at the system audio layer and gives every running app its own level in one place — the panel macOS never shipped. Because it works below the apps, it can also set the volume of apps that have no slider of their own, and it can remember a balance instead of making you rebuild it. This is the only approach that reliably answers "different volume for every app, all the time."

There are several honest options, and they differ less in whether they can set per-app volume than in how much they cost and how fast you reach the controls:

Background Music is free and open source, and it covers the core ask — per-app volume from a menu-bar list — without spending a cent. eqMac's equalizer is free, but its per-app Volume Mixer is a Pro feature, so for volume specifically you're on a subscription (around $3/month) or a lifetime license (around $40). SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba is a polished, deep paid app at a one-time price of roughly $49 that bundles per-app volume with EQ and effects. Fader is the keyboard-first option at $19.99 one-time. All of them can set a different volume for each app; the question is which fits how you work.

Whether you'll actually use it comes down to speed

Once you've decided per-app volume is worth installing software for, the thing that decides whether you keep using it is how long a single adjustment takes. A menu-bar mixer means: move to the menu bar, click the icon, find the app's row, drag the slider, dismiss the panel. That's five deliberate actions for a change you make dozens of times a day, and it's why a lot of people install a mixer and then quietly stop reaching for it.

Fader's whole bet is that the fastest controller you own is the keyboard already under your hands. You hit a toggle hotkey, the keyboard turns into a mixer — one column of keys is Spotify, the next is your call, the next a browser — and you ride each app's level with letter keys without leaving the window you're in. Different volumes for different apps stops being a panel you open and becomes a reflex. That keyboard speed, plus a one-time price instead of a subscription, is the specific edge Fader is built around; it isn't trying to out-feature SoundSource on EQ or out-price free tools like Background Music.

A related question: different output devices per app

Sometimes "different settings per app" isn't really about volume — it's about where the sound goes. Music to AirPods, a call on your laptop speakers, alerts somewhere else. That's output routing, and like per-app volume it isn't something macOS does on its own. If that's your actual goal, start with how to control individual app volume on a Mac, which lays out the full landscape of per-app controls, routing included.

Bottom line

Can you have different volumes for different apps on a Mac? Yes — the built-in controls just won't do it, because they only move one shared master level. For a quick, occasional balance, each app's own slider is free and good enough. For real per-app volume you set once and reach instantly — across calls, music, and streams all day — a dedicated mixer is the answer. If reaching the control in a single keystroke is what matters to you, that's exactly what Fader is for.