Where is the microphone on a MacBook, and how do you get the best sound from it?

Ten minutes into a Zoom call, someone says you sound like you are calling from a stairwell. You do what nearly everyone does: lean toward the little camera at the top of the screen and speak up. On a MacBook that move mostly helps the camera. The microphones are not up there. They sit in the bottom half of the laptop, and exactly where depends on which MacBook you have.

This page gives the map first, model by model, then the part that changes how you sound: where to put your head relative to those openings, which macOS settings matter, and when no amount of repositioning will fix it. If your MacBook shows no input at all and apps hear pure silence, you have a different problem, and why your Mac microphone is not working is the page you want instead.

Where is the mic on a MacBook? The answer by model

Apple marks the microphones in the "Take a tour" page of each MacBook user guide. The positions for 2020 and later models come from those diagrams, the 2015 MacBook Pro positions from iFixit and Apple Community threads, and the counts from Apple's spec sheets.

Two patterns stand out. First, on every MacBook Pro or Air with grilles beside the keyboard, the microphones live on the left. Second, the modern MacBook Air moved them to the middle, into the gap by the hinge. That one change decides how you should sit, so the sections below treat the two layouts separately.

Where is the microphone on a MacBook Air?

On a MacBook Air with M2, M3, M4 or M5, look at the thin band between the top row of keys and the hinge. Apple's diagram points into it a little right of center, above F7 and F8. There is no ring or hole to spot. The mics are behind the slot, which also carries the speaker sound.

On the M1 MacBook Air from 2020, the diagram points to the left grille: the column of tiny perforations running down beside the Tab, Caps Lock and Shift keys. If you are not sure which Air you have, choose Apple menu > About This Mac. The name and year are on the first line.

Where is the mic on a MacBook Pro?

On the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, from the 2021 models to the current M5 line, the mics are in the left speaker grille beside the keyboard. Apple's 2026 guide shows it from the front: the camera in the notch, the microphones at the left end of the base. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 follows the same rule, left grille.

Where is the microphone on a MacBook Pro 2017 or 2015?

Questions about older Pros usually come down to two machines. For the 2015 Retina models, the 15-inch hides two mics under the left grille, and the 13-inch, which has no grilles beside the keyboard, has two small holes on its left edge. For the 2017 MacBook Pro, Apple's spec sheets confirm the count (three or two, depending on the model) but Apple's guides from that year do not mark the spot, so the honest answer is to find it on your own machine. It takes thirty seconds.

The notch holds a camera, not a microphone

The most common mistake on a 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro, and on the newer Airs, is to treat the notch as the business end. It holds the camera. Talking at it is talking past the mics, which sit in the base, below and in front of the screen. On a Pro, they are under your left hand.

That has a side effect people rarely connect: on a Pro, anything that happens on the left side of the keyboard is close to the microphones and everything on the right is farther away. A notebook you scribble in on the left, a phone buzzing on the desk next to the grille, a left hand drumming on the palm rest: all of it lands in the mic louder than you would expect.

The lid matters too. Apple's platform security guide says that all Mac laptops with Apple silicon, and Intel models with the T2 chip, have a hardware disconnect that turns the microphone off whenever the lid is closed. No software can switch it back on. If you work in clamshell mode with an external display, the built-in mic is not quiet, it is off, and you need another input: a USB mic, a headset, AirPods, or an iPhone used through Continuity Camera.

Find yours in thirty seconds: the tap test

This works on any MacBook, including the 2017 models Apple never labeled.

1. Apple menu > About This Mac          note the model and year
2. Apple menu > System Settings > Sound > Input
   select "MacBook Air Microphone" or "MacBook Pro Microphone"
3. Open Voice Memos, click the Record button (bottom left)
4. Say "one", tap lightly with a fingernail on the left grille
   Say "two", tap the strip above F7 and F8
   Say "three", tap the left edge of the case
   Say "four", tap next to the notch
5. Stop, play it back on headphones
   The loudest tap marks the microphones

Tap gently. You are listening for a difference in loudness, and a soft tap right over the mic will come through far louder than the same tap ten centimetres away. Apple lists the built-in mic in that Input list as "[Mac model] Microphone", which is why it shows up under your MacBook's name.

Why where it sits matters more than any setting

Sound from your mouth spreads out as it travels. For a small source like a mouth, the sound pressure falls by about 6 dB every time the distance doubles. That is the inverse-square law, and it is the whole story of why a laptop mic sounds distant.

Your voice is not the only thing reaching the mic, though. Every hard surface in the room throws a delayed copy back: the desk, the wall behind the laptop, the window, the ceiling. Those reflections fill the room fairly evenly, so they do not fade with distance the way your direct voice does. Move away and your voice drops while the room stays put. The ratio between the two is what a listener hears as "close" or "in a bathroom".

Put numbers on it. Suppose your mouth is about 60 cm from the mics while you type. Slide the laptop toward you until it is 30 cm away and your direct voice is about 6 dB stronger against the same room. Lean back in your chair to 120 cm and it is about 6 dB weaker. No microphone setting moves that ratio by 6 dB in your favour for free. Distance does it.

The three-mic array helps, but within limits. Apple specifies these arrays with directional beamforming. In general terms, beamforming combines the signals from several capsules so that sound from one direction, here the space in front of the keyboard, is favored over sound from the sides. That narrows what the mic listens to. It does not shorten the distance. A beam pointed at you still hears the reflections arriving from your direction.

How to sit for the best sound from the built-in mic

These steps run in order of how much they change the result, biggest first.

1. Bring the laptop closer instead of leaning in. Leaning works for one sentence. Moving the laptop toward you works for the whole call. By the arithmetic above, going from 60 cm to 40 cm is worth about 3.5 dB of direct voice against the same room.
2. Sit centered on the keyboard and face the screen. The beamforming expects you there. Turning your head to read a second monitor on the right points your mouth away from the array.
3. Raise the laptop if you use it on a low table. A stand or a stack of books brings the base, and the mics in it, closer to mouth height. On an Air with M2 or later this also lifts the hinge strip, the part nearest your face.
4. Keep the openings clear. On a Pro or an M1 Air, that means nothing resting on the left grille: no hand, no notebook, no cable lying across it. On a newer Air, check that a keyboard cover does not reach over the strip above the function row.
5. Mute while you type. On a newer Air the mics sit just above the function keys. On a Pro the left grille is next to Tab, Caps Lock and Shift. Either way, keystrokes are close to the mic and closer than your mouth.
6. Watch the fans on a MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air with Apple silicon is fanless, so it has nothing to spin up. A Pro under heavy load can, and the fans sit in the same box as the microphones. Do not export a video during a call.
7. Soften the room around you. Curtains, a sofa, a bookshelf, even a coat on the back of a chair all break up the reflections that make a laptop mic sound hollow. The wall behind the screen is the one that sends your voice straight back.
8. Set the input volume, then leave it. In System Settings > Sound > Input, drag the slider. Too high and loud syllables distort; too low and the call app's automatic level boosts everything, the room included. Record a test in Voice Memos and listen on headphones before you change it again.

A quick comparison of the two layouts, since the advice differs a little:

macOS settings that change the built-in mic

Mic Mode. In macOS Sonoma 14 and later, during a video call, open the Video or Audio menu in the menu bar and choose Mic Mode. Voice Isolation filters out background sound, Wide Spectrum keeps the sounds around you, and Standard switches the processing back to normal. The app must support Mic Modes; FaceTime does, and other call apps show the menu when they support it. Voice Isolation is the first thing to try in a noisy room. It works on background noise; it cannot make you closer.

The checkbox from old guides. Older guides tell you to tick "Use ambient noise reduction" in the Input settings. Apple's own guide says this option does not appear on Macs with Apple silicon or the T2 chip. If you cannot find it, nothing is broken.

The right input. When AirPods or another headset connects, the Mac and the call app may switch to its microphone. Check System Settings > Sound > Input, and the microphone menu inside the call app, before blaming the built-in mic.

Your iPhone as a mic. With Continuity Camera you can choose your iPhone in System Settings > Sound > Input. Apple's requirements: the same Apple Account on both with two-factor authentication, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, devices within about 10 m (30 feet). The useful part is placement: a phone propped near your face is closer than any laptop base.

Every other input option, from per-app selection to Audio MIDI Setup, is in how to change microphone settings on a Mac.

When a better position is not enough

There is a limit to what you can do with a microphone that lives in the base of a laptop at typing distance. After the free steps, the remaining choices fall into two groups.

Put a mic closer to your mouth. A USB mic on a short stand, a clip-on wireless mic, or a headset with a boom changes the ratio of voice to room more than any processing can, because it attacks the distance itself. If that is where you are heading, the best microphone for a MacBook or iMac compares the types and who each suits.

Process the mic you have, tuned to you. This is where TunedMic fits. It is a Mac app that adds a virtual microphone, called TunedMic, next to your real one. You run a one-minute Sound Check, reading a short passage aloud in English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese or Russian, and the app takes more than 30 measurements of your voice, your mic and your room. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack, Telegram, Discord or FaceTime then pick TunedMic instead of the MacBook microphone, and every one of them hears the processed voice. It runs on the Mac, the voice is never uploaded, and it adds less than a tenth of a second of delay.

It has limits, and they matter for this page. TunedMic needs a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 or later, so the 2015 and 2017 MacBook Pros in the table above are out. There is no Windows version, and no refund once you pay. It does not move the microphone closer to you, it does not remove all noise, and it does not turn a laptop mic into a studio one. What it does is take the position you have already fixed and tune the sound for your voice and your room instead of for an average person in an average room.

The honest test is to listen first, then run the free 3-day trial on your own MacBook. The home page has before and after recordings made on a MacBook's built-in mic, loudness-matched, processed by the same code as the app. The price is $39 once at launch, listed on the pricing page.

Quick answers

Is the MacBook microphone next to the camera? No. On every model Apple labels, its diagrams place the microphones in the base: the left grille on Pros and the M1 Air, the hinge strip on the newer Air.

How many microphones does a MacBook have? Current MacBook Air and Pro models have three, combined into one array. The 2015 Retina Pros had two. The 2017 Pro had three or two depending on the model.

Can I use the built-in mic with the lid closed? No. On Apple silicon laptops and Intel laptops with the T2 chip, a hardware disconnect turns it off whenever the lid is shut.

The mic is in the right place but nothing comes through. That is a permissions, input or hardware problem, and the steps are in why your Mac microphone is not working.

What to do next

Run the tap test now, while you have the model name on screen. Then make two twenty-second recordings in Voice Memos, both reading the same paragraph: one from where you normally sit, one with the laptop a hand's width closer and the area around the mics cleared. Listen to both on headphones, one after the other. If the closer take is clearly better but you cannot sit like that through an hour of calls, play the MacBook mic samples on the TunedMic home page and judge whether that difference is worth $39 to you.