How to adjust brightness on a Mac

The quick version

There are three ways to change your Mac’s brightness. Tap the brightness keys at the top of the keyboard (the two sun icons). Open Control Center in the menu bar and drag the Display slider. Or go to System Settings, then Displays, and move the Brightness slider. The keys are fastest, and the sliders give you finer control.

That covers the everyday case in a couple of seconds. If you’ve maxed the slider and the screen still looks washed out in daylight, you’ve hit the limit macOS sets, not the limit of your display. On the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro and the Pro Display XDR, an app like MacBrightness opens the brighter range Apple holds in reserve, on the same keys you already press, and it’s free to try. More on when and why further down.

Change brightness with the keyboard

The brightness keys are the quickest method, and the one most people reach for.

Find the two keys marked with a small and a large sun. On most recent Macs they’re the top-left keys (F1 and F2). On a MacBook with a Touch Bar, tap the sun icon and a slider appears.
Press the larger sun to go brighter, the smaller one to go dimmer.
Hold Option and Shift while you press a key to move in quarter steps, which helps when one full step is too much.

If the keys do nothing, an app may have taken over that key, or function keys may be set to act as standard F-keys. You can always fall back to Control Center.

Adjust brightness in Control Center

Control Center is the menu-bar panel that holds your quick toggles, and it’s the most reliable way to find the slider.

Click the Control Center icon in the top-right of the menu bar (the two small toggles).
Find the Display tile and drag the brightness slider left or right.
For more options, click the word “Display” to expand True Tone, Night Shift, and any connected screens.

Set brightness in System Settings

When you want every brightness option in one place, go through System Settings.

Open the Apple menu, then System Settings.
Click Displays in the sidebar.
Drag the Brightness slider at the top. Below it you’ll find the toggles that change how bright your screen gets, covered next.

Turn auto-brightness on or off

If your screen dims and brightens on its own, auto-brightness is the reason. Your Mac reads the room with its ambient light sensor and adjusts to match. That’s helpful indoors and frustrating outdoors, where it often pulls brightness down at the exact moment you want more.

To take back manual control, open System Settings, click Displays, and turn off “Automatically adjust brightness.” While you’re there, True Tone shifts color to match the room and can make the screen look dimmer, so try turning it off too if your display reads warm or flat. Low Power Mode (under Battery) also caps brightness to save charge.

Screen brightness vs keyboard brightness

A quick one that trips people up: the screen and the backlit keyboard have separate controls. If your keys are getting brighter but the display isn’t, you’re adjusting the wrong thing. Keyboard backlight lives in Control Center under Keyboard Brightness, or on its own set of keys if your Mac has them. Screen brightness is the Display slider covered above.

When max brightness still isn’t enough

Sometimes none of the methods above works. You’ve turned off auto-brightness, dragged the slider to the top, and the screen is still hard to read in daylight. Nothing is broken. You’ve hit the ceiling macOS sets for everyday use.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro and the Pro Display XDR use mini-LED panels that sustain around 1,000 nits and peak near 1,600. Apple holds that full range for HDR photos and video, and caps normal brightness at roughly half to balance battery and heat. Think of it like a car with a speed limiter set well below what the engine can do. The headroom is sitting there. macOS keeps it locked for daily use.

If you want the longer explanation, read how to push your screen past the cap.

This only helps on displays that have spare brightness to give. The MacBook Air, Intel Macs, the M1 13-inch Pro, and the Studio Display already run at their real maximum, so there’s nothing extra to unlock.

FAQ

Where is the brightness slider on a Mac?

Two places. Click the Control Center icon in the top-right of the menu bar and use the Display tile, or open System Settings, click Displays, and drag the Brightness slider at the top. Control Center is faster for a quick change.

Why won't my Mac brightness go up?

Usually something is holding it down: auto-brightness reacting to the room, True Tone, Low Power Mode, or a reference display preset. Turn those off in Displays and Battery. If the slider is already at the top, you've reached the macOS cap, which is normal rather than a fault.

How do I turn up the keyboard backlight instead of the screen?

That's a separate control. Open Control Center and use Keyboard Brightness, or press the keyboard-backlight keys if your Mac has them. The Display slider only changes the screen, not the keys.

Why does my screen brightness keep changing on its own?

Auto-brightness and True Tone adjust to the light around you, so the screen shifts as you move between rooms or step outside. Turn off "Automatically adjust brightness" in System Settings, Displays to stop it.

Can I make my Mac brighter than the maximum?

On the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro and the Pro Display XDR, yes. Those screens hold extra brightness in reserve for HDR, and an app like MacBrightness opens that range system-wide. Other Macs already run at their true maximum, so there's no spare range to reach.