How to Chromecast From Mac

Set-up is easy

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Updated on December 15, 2020

What to Know

Open the video you want to cast in Chrome. Go to View > Cast in the top menu. Choose the device to cast to.
Use the Remote screen option to cast fullscreen on only the TV.
While casting, you'll have a volume slider and Play, Pause, Forward, and Back on-screen buttons.

This article explains how to Chromecast from Mac to any TV or monitor. In order to cast from your Mac, you'll need a Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra device, a TV with an HDMI input, Wi-Fi access, a Mac running OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or above, and the latest version of Chrome.

How to Chromecast From Mac

Before you get started, make sure you've already set up your Chromecast. Then, follow these instructions to start using it with your Mac computer.

Open Chrome. For now, let's assume you want to get caught up on Amazon Prime’s delightful The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel before Season 2 debuts. Good choice!
Browse to the window you want to cast. Remember, nearly anything you can do in a Chrome window, you can cast: video, slideshows, presentations, music, web apps, and lots more.
Select Cast from the menu bar’s View menu.
Choose which of your connected Google devices to cast to. The example shows three connected devices: Bedroom Chromecast, The Living Room TV, and Orange Mini. Let's cast to The Living Room TV.
Select Remote screen to cast fullscreen to your TV only.

Then adjust the volume slider on the same window. Note that this volume control is separate from your TV’s volume. You may need to adjust both your cast’s volume and that of your TV to get the best sound level.

See how the tab being cast now displays a blue screen icon? This is useful for keeping track of which tab is casting if you've got a lot of tabs open.
Control playback of whatever you're casting from your Mac's screen using the Play, Pause, Forward, and Back on-screen buttons.
When you're done watching, viewing, sharing, whatever-ing, click STOP to release the Chromecast.
That's really all there is to it.

Do I Need Install An Extension from the Chrome Store?

No. The ability to cast without an extension has been built into Chrome for Mac since August 2016. So if you've updated Chrome anytime within the past few years, Chrome should handle casting exactly as we’ve outlined here.

What Can I Do If Video Playback Isn’t Ideal?

For best results, close all the open tabs, especially if they’re doing any streaming. You might also consider closing any inactive apps on your Mac. The fewer things your Mac’s processor has to distract it, the more energy it can put into making your cast content buttery smooth.

A Quick Note On Performance

As long as you’re running Mac OS X 10.9, you should be able to cast just about anything Chrome can display.

Your video streaming experience is a processor-intensive experience, and quality will be dependent on the age and performance of your Mac. Wireless network and internet traffic can be a contributing factor.

Google’s guidance on minimum system requirements is accurate. Even a bone-stock 2011 MacBook Air should be able to cast streaming video without hiccups.

Casting from a late 2008 13” MacBook Core 2 Duo with maxed-out RAM, we found the MacBook struggled to send video of an acceptable quality. Even scaling back Prime Video’s Video Quality to Good barely smoothed out the relatively modest motion processing demands of our test video, rendering picture quality that was only passable at best.

Net-net, pay attention to Google’s system requirements and you should be good to go.

Even if you're already running an Apple TV, Roku, or one of Amazon's Fire TV devices, adding a Chromecast is a low-cost way to make sharing content from your Mac quick and easy.

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