Window Tiling Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac (Sequoia)

macOS 15 Sequoia finally gave the Mac built-in window tiling, and the fastest way to use it is the keyboard. Two keys plus an arrow snap the front window to any half of the screen — no dragging, no menu hunting. Here is every default shortcut, where to find the rest, and what your options are on Ventura or Sonoma.

The default tiling shortcuts

All of these act on the frontmost window. fn is the Function key at the bottom-left of Apple keyboards — on newer keyboards it doubles as the Globe key.

• fn + Ctrl + Left — tile to the left half of the screen
• fn + Ctrl + Right — tile to the right half
• fn + Ctrl + Up — tile to the top half
• fn + Ctrl + Down — tile to the bottom half
• fn + Ctrl + F — Fill the screen (maximize without entering full screen)
• fn + Ctrl + C — Center the window without resizing it
• fn + Ctrl + R — Return to Previous Size, the universal undo for all of the above

Unlike the green button's full-screen mode, tiled windows stay in your current Space with the menu bar and Dock visible.

Halves vs quarters: the Window menu lists everything

The shortcuts above are just the top of the list. Open Window → Move & Resize in any app and you'll find the complete tiling vocabulary: Halves, Quarters (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right), Arrangements that tile two, three, or four windows at once, plus Fill, Center, and Return to Previous Size. The menu shows the current shortcut next to each command, so it doubles as a cheat sheet.

Quarters don't ship with default keys, but you can add your own:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts.
2. Click +, leave Application on All Applications.
3. Type the menu title exactly as it appears — for example Top Left.
4. Press the key combination you want, then click Done.

Undoing a tile

Press fn + Ctrl + R and the window springs back to the size and position it had before you tiled it. Dragging a tiled window away from its position does the same thing. If the gaps around tiled windows bother you, turn off Tiled windows have margins in System Settings → Desktop & Dock for edge-to-edge tiling.

Settings that shape how tiling feels

Three switches in System Settings → Desktop & Dock, under Windows, tune the whole system. Tiled windows have margins keeps small gaps between tiles — turn it off for edge-to-edge. Drag windows to screen edges to tile enables the mouse equivalent of these shortcuts. And Hold ⌥ key while dragging windows to tile gives you instant drag-tiling with no pause at the edge. The keyboard shortcuts themselves have no off switch — they're always live on Sequoia.

Two behaviors worth knowing before the shortcuts become muscle memory. Tiling is per-display: a shortcut tiles the window on whichever screen it currently occupies, so a two-monitor desk can hold four half-tiled windows in view at once. And tiled windows aren't frozen — you can still resize one by its edges, and dragging the boundary between two adjacent tiles resizes both together, like the divider in a split-pane editor.

On Ventura and Sonoma

Window tiling shortcuts are a macOS 15 feature — macOS 13 and 14 have no built-in equivalent. Your options there:

• Split View: hover over the green button and choose Tile Window to Left of Screen. This creates a full-screen Space with two apps, which is heavier than Sequoia's tiling.
• Move without full screen: hold Option while hovering over the green button and the menu changes to Move Window to Left Side of Screen, which snaps the window to a half without leaving your Space.
• Zoom: Option-click the green button to maximize in place.

None of these have default keyboard shortcuts, which is exactly why third-party tiling tools stayed popular until Sequoia shipped.

Prefer the mouse?

Sequoia also tiles when you drag a window against a screen edge and pause — including instant tiling if you hold Option. The full drag behavior, and the settings that control it, are covered in how to tile windows by dragging to screen edges.