How to Show the Mouse Pointer in Mac Screenshots

Mac screenshots omit the cursor by default — sensible for clean images, useless when the whole point is "click here." The switch lives in the screenshot toolbar's Options menu, it persists once set, and there's one timing trick you need for captures where the pointer becomes a crosshair. macOS 13, 14, and 15 all behave the same way.

Turn on Show Mouse Pointer

1. Press Cmd + Shift + 5 to open the screenshot toolbar.
2. Click Options.
3. Select Show Mouse Pointer under the settings section.

The checkmark sticks — every future capture includes the pointer until you turn it off the same way. Take a full-screen capture (Cmd + Shift + 3, or the toolbar's Capture Entire Screen) and the arrow appears in the image exactly where it was, including context-appropriate cursors: the I-beam over text, the pointing hand over links, a resize arrow on a window edge. For documentation, that cursor shape is real information — it tells the reader what kind of thing they're looking at.

The catch: selection and window modes hide your real pointer

Here's what trips people up. In selection mode the pointer is the crosshair, and in window mode it's a camera — your actual arrow doesn't exist at capture time, so it can't appear in the image. The fix is the timer, two lines down in the same Options menu:

1. In Cmd + Shift + 5 → Options, set Timer to 5 Seconds.
2. Choose your capture type and click Capture.
3. During the countdown, your pointer returns to normal — pose it over the button or menu item you're documenting.
4. The shot fires with the arrow exactly where you parked it.

Timer plus Show Mouse Pointer is the standard recipe for tutorial screenshots: you get hover states, open menus, and a visible cursor, all in one frame.

Screen recordings are different

In the toolbar's two recording modes, the pointer is recorded as a matter of course — viewers need to follow it, so there's no toggle to hunt for. The recording-specific option in the same Options menu is Show Mouse Clicks, which draws a dark circle around the pointer whenever you click. Turn it on for tutorials; every click becomes visible instead of inferred. It affects recordings only, not still screenshots.

When to leave the pointer out

The toggle cuts both ways, and it's worth flipping deliberately per project:

• Pointer on: tutorials, bug reports ("the button I'm clicking does nothing"), UI walkthroughs, anywhere the reader's eye needs an anchor.
• Pointer off: product marketing shots, clean UI documentation, screenshots for design review — a stray arrow reads as sloppiness there.

Since the setting persists silently, a surprise arrow in next month's screenshots means you left it on. The undo is the same three clicks: Cmd + Shift + 5 → Options → uncheck Show Mouse Pointer.

Make the captured pointer easier to see

The pointer captures at exactly the size it appears on screen — which, in a full-screen shot scaled down for a doc, can shrink the arrow to near-invisibility. Two fixes. The honest one: crop tighter, so the pointer stays proportionally large. The system one: enlarge the pointer itself in System Settings → Accessibility → Display, using the Pointer size slider — the bigger cursor appears in your captures too, and plenty of tutorial authors bump it up one notch just for screenshot sessions, then slide it back. The same pane offers pointer outline and fill colors on macOS 13 and later, so a high-contrast cursor can be part of your documentation style rather than an afterthought.