How to Change the Volume of Individual Apps on Mac
Updated · by the ProMacTools team
What macOS can and cannot do
The volume slider in Control Center and the volume keys change the output level of the current device for every app at once. Some apps — Music, Spotify, video players, Zoom — have their own volume slider inside the app, but there is no central place to see and control them all, and many apps (browsers, chat apps, games) have none.
Audio MIDI Setup only adjusts the device itself, and the Sound settings only control alert sounds separately from everything else.
Set per-app volume with App Volume Mixer
- Download App Volume Mixer and drag it to Applications.
- Open it. A slider icon appears in the menu bar.
- Play some sound in any app. It appears in the list with its icon.
- Drag its slider: 0% is silent, 100% is unchanged, up to 400% boosts a quiet app.
- The first time, macOS asks for System Audio Recording permission. Allow it — the mixer needs it to adjust another app's sound.
Levels are remembered per app, so the next time that app plays sound it starts at the volume you chose.
Mute a single app
Click the speaker button next to the app. Everything else keeps playing. Click again to unmute.
Tips
- Switching to headphones or AirPods keeps every app's level.
- Browsers use helper processes for audio; App Volume Mixer groups them, so one slider controls all tabs of that browser.
- If macOS lowers everything while you are on a call, see why that happens.