How to resize windows with the keyboard on a Mac

Resizing by dragging corners is slow. The keyboard shortcuts macOS has, the ones it lacks, and how to nudge widths and heights without touching the mouse.

Guide · Updated 13 October 2026

Grabbing the exact edge of a window to resize it is fiddly on a trackpad. The keyboard is quicker, once you know what is there.

What macOS gives you

  • fn ⌃ and an arrow tiles to a half (macOS 15 and later).
  • fn ⌃ F fills the screen; fn ⌃ C centres.
  • Window menu, Zoom, toggles between the app's preferred size and the last size.

There is no built in way to make a window a little wider or a little taller.

Finer control

In ClutterFreeMacKeys
Cycle a third, half, two thirds⌃ ⌥ R
Full width⌃ ⌥ F
A little wider or narrower⌃ ⌥ = and ⌃ ⌥ −
Taller or shorter in a stack⌃ ⌥ ⇧ = and −
Even heights in a stack⌃ ⌥ 0

Because windows sit in columns, making one wider never covers its neighbour; the row simply gets longer. The widths ⌃ ⌥ R steps through can be changed in Settings, Layout.

Questions

Is there a shortcut to resize a window on a Mac?

macOS 15 can tile to halves and fill with `fn` `⌃`. For exact widths and small nudges you need a window manager.

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