Guide

Per-app volume control on a Mac

Last updated: August 4, 2026

macOS has no built-in per-app volume control. There is no Mac equivalent of the Windows Volume Mixer: the volume keys and the menu-bar slider change one system-wide level, and every app moves with it. Nothing in System Settings breaks that level apart per application. To set different volumes for different apps you need third-party software, which works by creating an audio process tap on each app (a documented macOS facility that hands one program's output to another), applying your chosen level to each, and mixing the result back together. That capability arrived in macOS 14.2, so tools built on it need at least that version, and macOS will ask you for an audio-recording permission before any of it works. Free partial workarounds exist first, and for a lot of situations they're enough.

That's the answer. Below: why macOS works this way, the free workarounds that get you part of the way there, and what the real solutions do.

Why doesn't macOS have a volume mixer?

Core Audio mixes every app's output together and sends the result to your output device. Apple exposes one master level for that device and gives no user-facing control over the individual streams feeding into it. Windows has shipped a per-app mixer for years; macOS never has, and there's no hidden setting for it.

The capability exists at the system level, and macOS can identify audio per process. It just isn't surfaced anywhere in System Settings.

Free things you can do first

Worth trying before installing anything, because for some situations they're enough:

• Use each app's own volume slider. Music, Spotify, VLC, most video players and most browsers-with-a-video-open have an internal volume. Turning the loud app down inside the app is the simplest fix and costs nothing.
• Mute individual browser tabs. Safari, Chrome and Firefox all let you mute a specific tab, which handles the common case of one autoplaying page talking over your music.
• Send one app to a different output device. A few apps let you choose their own output. If the noisy app is one of them, you can route it somewhere else entirely.

What none of these give you is a single place to see everything that's making sound and balance it.

How third-party per-app volume actually works

Modern macOS lets an app create a tap on another process's audio: a way to receive that app's output specifically, rather than the system mix. Apple documents this as capturing system audio with Core Audio taps, added in macOS 14.2. Software that offers per-app volume creates one tap per audio-producing app, applies your chosen level to each, and mixes the result back together.

Two consequences worth knowing before you install anything:

• It needs a permission. macOS gates process taps behind an audio-recording permission, so you'll be asked to grant it. That's the system working correctly; anything claiming per-app control without asking is doing something less precise.
• Older apps need a virtual audio device too, so they can sit in the path of your system audio at all, and installing one means a one-time password prompt during setup. Apps built on the newer capture APIs, EQBase among them, skip that entirely: the same recording permission covers reading the mix, so there is nothing to install and no password to type.

Older tools that predate process taps worked by routing everything through a virtual device and guessing, which is why they were less reliable. If you read advice written more than a couple of years ago, this is what changed.

Your options

All of them install a system audio component of some kind and ask for permission during setup, which is unavoidable given how macOS works, not a red flag. Prices and features change; if something here is out of date, tell us.

Per-app volume in EQBase

EQBase's App Mixer gives every app that's making sound its own volume, mute and 10-band equalizer, so you can leave your browser permanently quieter than your music app, and thinner, without touching either one again. It needs macOS 14.4 or later, since that's where the process-tap API EQBase relies on became available.

Two design decisions that differ from the obvious approach:

• If a tap fails for any reason, EQBase falls back to processing the system mix rather than dropping audio. Your sound never stops because a per-app feature had a problem.
• An app that goes briefly silent doesn't vanish from the mixer and reappear a moment later, so the list stays stable while you're using it.

The App Mixer is a Pro feature. The free tier (10-band EQ, 8,600+ headphone corrections, Auto Switch, hotkeys) has no time limit, so you can check EQBase suits you before deciding.

Common questions

Can I do this without installing anything?

Not properly. You can turn down individual apps that have their own volume slider, but macOS provides no central per-app control, so a real mixer means third-party software.

Will per-app volume affect audio quality?

Changing an app's level is just gain, a multiplication, which is harmless in itself. What matters is what the surrounding software does to the signal on the way through. Per-app tools have to capture each app's audio, mix it back together and hand the result to your output device, and some resample, dither or apply effects to everything all the time whether you asked for it or not. Two things are worth checking: whether the tool is transparent when you haven't changed anything, and whether it adds latency, which shows up as lip-sync drift on video and lag in calls. EQBase is bit-perfect when its controls are flat and adds zero samples of latency to the direct signal, so an app you haven't touched comes out exactly as it went in.

Does it work with Bluetooth headphones and AirPods?

Yes. The mixing happens before audio reaches your output device, so it works with any output your Mac supports.

Why does it need recording permission?

macOS classifies capturing audio, including another app's output and your own system audio, under its recording permissions, listed as Screen & System Audio Recording. Granting it lets the app receive audio to process. It is not microphone access, and per-app volume never asks for your microphone; see our privacy policy for the two opt-in features that do, and for exactly what does and doesn't leave your Mac.

Related

Does macOS have a built-in equalizer? · How to make your Mac louder · How to record system audio on a Mac · How EQBase compares to the alternatives

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