How to control the volume of individual browser tabs on Mac

A browser tab can usually be muted on a Mac, but it does not always get its own volume slider. Use the player inside the page when it has one. Use the browser's tab control when silence is enough. Use an app-level mixer when the whole browser needs to sit below a call, game, or music app.

Mute one tab with the browser

Safari marks a tab that is playing sound with an audio button. Click it to mute that tab without pausing the page. Apple also documents two useful variations: Option-click the audio button to mute every other tab, or use the audio button in the Smart Search field to mute the current tab or list the sites producing sound. These are mute controls, not percentage sliders.

In Chrome, start with the page's own player. If the tab or site offers a mute command, it is still an on/off choice. A video player's volume control is usually the only built-in way to set one page to 35% while another page remains at 80%.

Know why a tab may not have a volume slider

macOS exposes a master output level, and browsers decide how their own pages are mixed. Safari can identify and mute audible tabs, while many sites expose a player volume. There is no universal macOS control that turns every tab in every browser into a separate percentage slider.

That distinction prevents a common dead end. A per-app audio tool can find Safari or Chrome as an audio-producing process, but tabs inside the same browser normally remain part of that browser's output. If a page has no player volume, the next available boundary is usually the whole browser app.

Lower the whole browser without changing other apps

This is the useful case for a Mac volume mixer. Suppose a tutorial is playing in Safari while you work in Logic, or a live score is open in Chrome during a call. Lower the browser and leave the other app where it is. The Mac's main volume still raises or lowers the final output, but the relationship between the apps stays intact.

On macOS 26 or later, SOUND gives each active audio app its own volume, equalizer, and output choice. It works with Apple's process-audio APIs rather than installing a virtual audio driver. Processing is live and local; SOUND does not record or store the audio. It controls the browser process, not an individual tab within that process.

Separate two web sources when levels matter

When two web sources need independent levels and neither site provides a suitable player, open them in different apps. Put the call in its dedicated app if one exists, or place one site in Safari and the other in Chrome. A per-app mixer can then control each browser separately.

This is especially useful for a reference video beside a browser-based instrument, a livestream beside a voice call, or ambient audio beneath spoken material. It is a practical workaround, but it costs memory and another application window. If one page already has a good player slider, use that first.

Pick the smallest control that solves it

The control closest to the source is usually easiest to understand. Pause stops playback. Mute keeps playback moving silently. A player slider changes one piece of media. A browser-level slider changes every audible tab in that browser. The Mac's output control changes the whole device.

If your real problem is a browser that is louder than Zoom, Music, or a game, follow the full guide to controlling individual app volume on Mac. If the audio also needs to reach a different device, use the per-app audio routing guide.

Fix browser audio in five steps

1. Find the tab that shows an audio or speaker indicator.
2. Use the page's player slider if you need a precise level.
3. Mute the tab from the browser when an on/off control is enough.
4. Lower the browser as an app when all its tabs may move together.
5. Move one source to another browser app when two web levels must stay independent.

Test the result with the real task running. A browser-only check cannot tell you whether speech still sits clearly above music or whether a tutorial remains audible beside the app you are learning.