Free Software for Desktop Video Recording and Mac Live Streaming!

OBS Studio for Mac

OBS Studio for Mac

  -  169.66 MB  -  Open Source
  • Latest Version

    OBS Studio 30.2.0 LATEST

  • Review by

    Sophia Jones

  • Operating System

    macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later

  • User Rating

    Click to vote
  • Author / Product

    OBS Team / External Link

  • Filename

    OBS-Studio-30.2.0-macOS-Intel.dmg

  • MD5 Checksum

    89408d3174f418ea3a4a95b4fa837b82

OBS Studio for Mac is free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming, empowering users of all technical knowledge levels to capture and mix real-time video and audio from multiple sources and broadcast it to the internet. It includes support for full-screen capture, window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture cards, covering the needs of home users, educators, students, and professionals.

OBS Studio for Mac Screenshot 2

Today, OBS Studio is widely used by gamers, educators, and content creators to create high-quality video content for various platforms. The app supports hardware-accelerated video processing, which can dramatically reduce the strain on CPU performance, freeing the computer to be focused on other tasks while the live stream session is active.

Users can also take full control over the look and feel of their livestream, with an incredible variety of tools for the management of cameras, audio mixing, video transitions, on-screen effects, and many other production services. Finally, the video streams produced by this app can be automatically routed to the largest and most popular video streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Twitch, and others, empowering all users to produce a high-quality video stream to worldwide audiences without any need for custom hardware or expensive video editing software.

Mac users can use this app for recording and live streaming on all modern desktop and laptop hardware running macOS 11.0 or newer.

Features
  • Screen Capture – Capture desktop or active app screen in HD quality and stream it high quality.
  • Video Recording – Set recording options for high-quality video capture, and securely save it on local storage.
  • Video Broadcasting – Easily broadcast video content live to various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.
  • Neat and Clean Interface – Take full control over the recording and broadcasts with a streamlined interface that promotes easy discovery of all its tools.
  • Customizable Look and Controls – Modify the video production dashboard to best fit your needs, with full access to customizing keyboards and other accessories.
  • Optimize Video Quality – Monitor up to 8 different scenes concurrently, cue transitions, and control the video quality of the final broadcast stream.
Installation and Setup

To get this app up and running on any modern Mac, users simply must download the automated installer from the official website, digital software distribution platform Steam, or our secure FileHorse servers.

OBS Studio for Mac Screenshot 3

The app is optimized for both Intel-based Macs and the newest Apple Silicon hardware. To install the app, simply follow the on-screen instructions, and the app will automatically install itself, and detect the on-board video processing hardware, microphones, webcams, and other accessories.

How to Use

Upon the first start of the app, users will be required to perform an initial setup where they will pick the video processing quality, select webcams, and microphone, configure capture cards, and create scenes from the available camera sources. Advanced controls include the setup for on-screen elements, animated scene transitions, and more.

OBS Studio for Mac Screenshot 4

New users can learn much more about the hidden features of this highly capable recording and broadcasting utility via official documentation and a large number of community tutorials.

User Interface

OBS Studio features a user-friendly dashboard that is easy to navigate. Users can easily set up their recording scenes, manage webcam feeds, eliminate greenscreen for more streamlined host integration on recorded videos, and manage the flow of the live stream sessions with a wide array of shortcuts and command buttons.

OBS Studio for Mac Screenshot 5

All in all, even novices can learn to easily manage this recording and broadcasting utility with ease.

FAQ

What is OBS Studio for macOS?
It is free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming, with full support for hardware-accelerated video processing that leaves most system resources available for the processing of apps and video games.

Is it safe?
Yes, this is a widely used and trusted application that receives regular stability, security, and functionality upgrades.

Alternatives

Camtasia for Mac – A versatile screen recording and video editing software, providing users with powerful tools to create professional-quality videos and tutorials seamlessly on the macOS platform.

Wirecast for Mac – A professional software for video recording and live streaming, with many advanced features such as virtual sets, multi-camera support, and social media integration.

ScreenPal for Mac – A versatile screen recording and video editing tool, offering users intuitive features to capture, edit, and share videos effortlessly

Pricing

This app is 100% free for download and use. There are no hidden fees or subscriptions for unlocking additional tools and features.

System Requirements

This Mac app can be natively used on both Intel and Apple Silicon hardware. Minimum system requirements are as follows:
  • OS: macOS 11.0 or newer
  • CPU: Intel quadcore (M1/M2 is recommended)
  • Memory: 4GB of RAM (8GB is recommended)
  • Storage: 800MB of free space
PROS
  • Free and open-source software.
  • Easy to use and navigate.
  • Customizable controls and hotkeys.
  • Ability to manage quality and monitor multiple scenes.
  • Compatible with various platforms.
  • Hardware-accelerated video processing.
  • Built-in broadcasting to most popular video streaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.
CONS
  • Requires some technical knowledge for optimal customization.
Conclusion

OBS Studio for Mac is a powerful and versatile tool for video recording and live streaming on Mac computers, with full support for broadcast customization, advanced video effects, scene management, and integration with popular streaming platforms. Its ease of use and compatibility with various platforms make it a valuable utility for anyone wishing to stream their desktop, apps, or games to the internet.

Also Available: Download OBS Studio for Windows

  • OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshots

    The images below have been resized. Click on them to view the screenshots in full size.

    OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshot 1
  • OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshot 2
  • OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshot 3
  • OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshot 4
  • OBS Studio 30.2.0 Screenshot 5

What's new in this version:

New Features:
- Added support for Multitrack Video streaming
- On Twitch, this is known as Enhanced Broadcasting. For more information, see:
- The supported audio channel configurations are stereo or mono.
- This feature is currently only available on Windows and requires an NVIDIA GTX 900, GTX 10, or RTX 20 series GPU or newer or an AMD RX 6000 series GPU or newer. Support for other operating systems and GPU vendors is planned.
- When this feature is enabled, the following data about your system will be sent to the streaming service when starting a stream:
- OBS version and audio/video settings (Resolution, framerate, audio channels/tracks)
- CPU info (Name, speed, core counts)
- GPU info (Model, memory, driver version, device ID, vendor ID)
- Memory info (Free, total)
- OS info (name, version, arch, emulation)
- Windows info (Gaming feature status: Game Bar, Game DVR, Game Mode, Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling)
- Multitrack Video settings (Maximum streaming bandwidth, maximum video tracks)
- Added support for Enhanced RTMP/FLV multi-track audio and video
- Replaces the old metadata-based "VOD Track"
- Added "Hybrid MP4" output format (BETA)
- Combines fault-tolerance of fragmented MP4 with wide compatibility and faster access times of regular MP4
- Supports inserting chapter markers into the file via a hotkey or API. These markers are supported by most video players and editing software, such as DaVinci Resolve
- Added Linux support to the native NVENC encoder
- NVENC AV1 is now supported on Linux
- Added Linux shared texture support to the NVENC encoder
- Added Linux shared texture support to the QuickSync encoder
- Added Linux shared texture support to the VA-API encoder
- Added HEVC support to WebRTC output
- Added Composable Themes system to simplify theme creation, maintenance, and enable future customization options
- Themes now consist of a base theme and variants that can be switched between in the new "Appearance" settings tab
- Old themes will no longer work and will need to be updated to the new system
- The legacy System theme is no longer available. If it was used for accessibility reasons with high contrast, enable high contrast in your operating system settings to re-enable the OBS System Theme. OBS can only detect high contrast on Windows and macOS at this time.

Changed:
- Various UI and Theme tweaks
- Audio of multiple instances of a source in a scene/group is now deduplicated
- Deduplication is recursive, but does not apply on groups or nested scenes that are currently playing show/hide transitions, this may be fixed in the future
- Scene Collection specific plugin data is now retained for plugins that are not currently loaded
- Closed-captions are now supported for HEVC and AV1
- Qt Fusion style is now always enforced on Linux
- Combined PipeWire window/display capture into unified "Screen Capture" source to align with other platforms
- Renamed "Screen Capture (XSHM)" as "Display Capture (XSHM)" for consistency with other capture sources
- Set default recording format on macOS to fragmented MOV
- Improved freetype2 text source performance
- File open dialogs now start in the directory of the currently selected file, rather than the default
- Moved warnings in advanced output to bottom of settings window for better visibility
- Various performance improvements for texture encoding
- Prioritize NVDEC decoder on NVIDIA systems
- Support NVDEC decoder for encoded DirectShow sources
- Replaced non-texture NVENC FFmpeg fallback with native implementation
- Log now includes all available encoders
- Reset duration of scene item show/hide transitions when removing the transitions
- Adjusted appearance of volume meters
- Adjusted appearance of multiview borders and labels
- Added support for audio-only and video-only WHIP outputs
- Changed default container in non-macOS OBS Beta builds from Fragmented MP4 to Hybrid MP4

Fixed:
- Fixed packet priority not being set for some AV1 encoders, resulting in outputs never recovering from dropping frames
- Fixed various issues with audio channel layouts in (remuxed) recordings
- Fixed various issues with the native FLV muxer
- Fixed various issues with the RTMP protocol implementation
- Fixed minor errors in HEVC and AVC decoder configuration records
- Fixed change discard confirmation dialog popping up twice when closing source properties
- Fixed QSV AV1 on multi-GPU systems
- Fixed FFmpeg output erroneously checking disk space when not writing to a file
- Fixed auto-config wizard not working without a stream key
- Fixed text alignment with extents
- Fixed encoder properties having nested scroll areas in output settings
- Fixed crash if input video resolution changes when using hardware-accelerated decoding
- Fixed button text being cut off in controls dock
- Fixed undo action for filters showing UUID instead of name
- Fixed not all eligible Patreon supporters being shown in the "About" dialogue
- Fixed copy-pasting show/hide transitions not including duration
- Fixed settings dialog being cut off on low-resolution screens
- Fixed paused indicator text stacking
- Fixed disabled audio sources showing up in advanced audio properties
- Fixed Grid Mode setting not being persisted when enabled through the View menu
- Fixed CoreAudio not handling encoder delay, resulting in audio being 44-48 ms late
- Fixed OBS not handling negative audio timestamps at the start of an output correctly, resulting in Opus and CoreAudio AAC audio being delayed by a few ms
- Fixed VA-API AV1 encoder being unavailable if H.264 is unsupported
- Fixed WebRTC buffer size being too small for recovery with high-bitrate video
- Fixed renaming multiple scenes when hitting Tab key while renaming