Kowalski is a fast, native screenshot and screen recording tool for Mac. Capture anything and mark it up in seconds. Record your screen, cut it, and explain it with arrows, text and freezes. Copy the text inside, and find it all again later.
Everything happens in one small app in your menu bar.
Press your capture shortcut and the screen freezes, so menus and hover states stay put while you choose.
One clean toolbar with the tools people actually use, each a single key away.
Pick an area and start recording; stop from the little control next to it. The recording opens in an editor that works like the screenshot one.
Select an area and the text in it is on your clipboard, from images, videos and apps that don't let you select.
Details that make it feel like it was always part of your Mac.
A small thumbnail after every capture: copy, save, edit, pin, or drag it straight into Slack, mail or your code editor.
Every action has a shortcut you can change, and Kowalski can take over ⌘⇧3 and ⌘⇧4 from macOS if you like.
Start any capture or recording from other apps with links like kowalski://capture-area.
Name saved files your way with date, time and counter tokens, and see the next name before you save.
Your screenshots and recordings never leave your Mac. No account, no cloud, no tracking, and it works offline.
Built in Swift for macOS. A small download that lives in your menu bar and is ready the instant you need it.
Capture, annotate, copy. Then record, cut and explain.
No subscription. Try everything free for 14 days.
Deal ends in
After the trial, capturing and copying keep working for free.
Capturing and copying keep working. The editor, screen recording, scrolling capture, text recognition and window backgrounds need a license.
Yes. It records the Mac's own sound directly, exactly as it plays. Turn on the microphone in the menu or Settings to add your voice; with speakers, headphones keep the Mac's sound from being picked up twice.
Cut parts out or keep only one part, crop it, add arrows, text, numbers, emoji and blur that show for as long as you choose, and freeze a moment to explain it. Save an MP4 or a GIF, or copy it and paste it into Slack, Mail or Messages.
Yes. Everything, including text recognition, runs on your Mac. A license is checked online about once a week, and keeps working for 30 days without a connection.
Only on your Mac: on the clipboard, in the folder you choose, and in Kowalski's history (which you can limit or turn off). Nothing is uploaded.
macOS requires Screen Recording permission for any app that takes screenshots or records the screen. Accessibility is optional: it lets Kowalski find areas inside windows and scroll pages for scrolling capture. The microphone is only used when you turn it on for a recording.
Yes, on up to three Macs you use. You can move a license to another Mac from Settings › License.
Yes. Turn off ⌘⇧3 and ⌘⇧4 in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Screenshots and record them in Kowalski's Settings.
Write to us within 14 days of buying and you'll get a full refund, no questions asked.