Auto-hide the Dock to reclaim space on a MacBook

On a 13-inch MacBook, a persistent Dock swallows a real slice of an already short screen. Turn on auto-hide and every one of those pixels goes back to your windows — the Dock slides out of sight until you push the pointer to its edge, then reappears. Here's how to do it in System Settings or with one Terminal command.

Why the Dock costs more on a laptop

Vertical pixels are the scarce resource on a laptop. A 13-inch MacBook Air runs at a scaled 1470×956-ish working resolution, and a Dock parked along the bottom claims roughly 70 to 90 points of that height for as long as it's visible — plus the shelf of empty margin above it. On a desktop with a tall external panel you never notice. On a laptop, that band is the difference between seeing the last two rows of a spreadsheet or not.

Auto-hide reclaims the whole strip. Your windows can grow to the full height of the screen, and the Dock only borrows the space back for the second you're actually pointing at it.

Turn on auto-hide in System Settings

1. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
2. Find Automatically hide and show the Dock.
3. Switch it on.

The Dock slides away immediately. To bring it back, push your pointer firmly against the edge it lives on — the bottom by default. This works identically on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. The same switch is also on the keyboard: Cmd+Option+D toggles auto-hide from anywhere, so you can flip it off for a moment and back on without opening Settings.

Do it from Terminal

If you'd rather script it or add it to a setup routine, one command sets the same preference:

# Turn on Dock auto-hide
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true
killall Dock

# Undo — bring the Dock back permanently
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool false
killall Dock

The killall Dock line restarts the Dock so the change takes effect right away; your windows and open apps aren't touched. To wipe the setting entirely and return to the system default, run defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide followed by killall Dock.

Make the reveal feel instant

Auto-hide adds a short delay before the Dock slides in, which on a laptop can feel like a stutter when you're reaching for an app fast. That delay is adjustable — you can remove it so the Dock appears the instant your pointer hits the edge. The commands and the trade-offs are covered in how to make the Dock hide and show instantly on Mac.

Shrink the Dock while you're at it

If you want the Dock small enough to stay out of the way even when it's showing, pair auto-hide with a smaller icon size — see how to make the Dock smaller on Mac.