OBS Studio Keyboard Shortcuts
OBS Studio's default keyboard shortcuts are deliberately minimal out of the box, since most of what people actually want bound to a hotkey — switching scenes, muting a specific microphone, starting a recording — depends entirely on a user's own scene and source setup, which OBS can't predict in advance. Nearly everything covered here is technically a user-assigned hotkey from Settings > Hotkeys rather than a true unchangeable default, but these are the bindings the overwhelming majority of streaming guides and OBS's own quick-start documentation recommend, making them the de facto standard most users end up with. This page is written for streamers, educators recording lecture capture, and remote presenters setting up OBS for the first time or cleaning up an existing hotkey configuration, since the central task here isn't memorizing fixed bindings the way you would with most software but rather understanding which actions are worth assigning a key to in the first place. Because every hotkey needs manual setup, the practical first step for any new OBS install is opening Settings > Hotkeys and deliberately working through streaming/recording controls, then scene switching, then individual source and audio toggles, roughly in that order of how frequently each gets used during a typical session.
Streaming Recording
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start/Stop Streaming | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned, no default | Toggles the live stream on or off; OBS ships with no default key bound, so this must be set manually in Settings > Hotkeys before it's usable from the keyboard. |
| Start/Stop Recording | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned, no default | Toggles local recording independently of streaming — you can record without streaming, stream without recording, or do both simultaneously, and this hotkey only controls the recording half. |
| Save Replay Buffer | User-assigned, commonly bound to a function key like F9 | User-assigned | Saves the last N seconds of footage (configured in Output settings) to disk instantly, the OBS equivalent of an instant-replay clip, useful for capturing a highlight moment after it already happened rather than needing to record continuously. |
| Pause/Unpause Recording | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned | Pauses the active recording without stopping it entirely, useful for skipping a break without producing two separate video files to merge afterward. |
| Start/Stop Virtual Camera | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned | Toggles OBS's Virtual Camera output, which makes the current program output available as a selectable webcam source in other applications like Zoom or Google Meet, letting your scene mix, overlays, and sources appear in a video call instead of a raw single webcam feed. |
Scene Source Control
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mute/Unmute specific audio source | User-assigned per source, commonly bound to a dedicated key | User-assigned per source | Toggles mute on a specific audio input, configured individually per source in the Hotkeys settings — there's no single universal 'mute everything' default, since most setups have multiple distinct audio sources (mic, desktop audio, game audio) that need independent control. |
| Switch to a specific scene | User-assigned per scene, commonly Ctrl+number combos | User-assigned per scene | Switches the active output scene to a specific one instantly, bound individually per scene in Hotkeys settings — most streamers assign a numbered sequence (Scene 1, Scene 2, etc.) to a corresponding number key for fast switching during a live broadcast. |
| Toggle visibility of a specific source | User-assigned per source | User-assigned per source | Shows or hides a specific source within the current scene without switching scenes entirely — commonly used for toggling an overlay, alert box, or webcam on and off independently of the main content. |
| Toggle Studio Mode | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned | Switches into Studio Mode, which separates a 'preview' scene from the live 'program' output, letting you set up and check the next scene before pushing it live with a manual Transition click rather than switching directly and instantly on air. |
| Trigger Transition (in Studio Mode) | User-assigned, no default | User-assigned | Executes the configured transition effect to push the currently prepared preview scene live into the program output, the action that completes what Studio Mode sets up, letting a broadcaster verify a scene looks right before committing it to the live feed. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't any of these shortcuts work right after installing OBS?
Almost none of OBS's hotkeys ship with a default binding — they're intentionally left unassigned because the relevant action (which scene, which audio source) depends entirely on a setup OBS has no way to predict for a brand-new installation. You need to visit Settings > Hotkeys and manually assign a key to each action you want keyboard control over.
Can the same key control mute for one source and something else for a different source?
Yes — hotkeys in OBS are assigned per individual source or scene, not globally, so you can bind, for instance, the same number key to mute your microphone in one profile and to toggle a webcam source in a different scene collection, since these are scoped independently rather than sharing one global keymap.
Does Save Replay Buffer also start a regular recording?
No — the Replay Buffer is a separate, independently configured feature from regular recording. It continuously holds a rolling buffer of the last several seconds (or minutes) of output in memory/temp storage, and the hotkey just flushes that buffer to a saved file on demand. It needs to be enabled separately under Output settings before the buffer is even running in the background, regardless of whether you've also started a normal recording.
What's the actual benefit of the Virtual Camera feature over just using my webcam directly in a video call app?
Selecting your raw webcam directly in a call app only sends that single unprocessed feed. Routing through OBS's Virtual Camera instead sends whatever your full OBS scene currently shows — webcam plus overlays, screen share, lower-third graphics, or any other composited sources — meaning your video call appearance can include the same production value as a full stream setup rather than being limited to a plain unedited camera feed.
Why would I use Studio Mode instead of just switching scenes directly?
Switching scenes directly changes the live output instantly and unconditionally, meaning any mistake in the new scene's setup is visible to viewers immediately. Studio Mode's preview/program split lets you build and visually verify a scene is correctly configured before it goes live, catching an unmuted mic, hidden source, or wrong overlay before the audience ever sees it, at the cost of one extra manual transition step compared to a direct switch.
Is there a shortcut for switching directly to a specific numbered scene in OBS Studio?
Yes — assigning a custom hotkey to each individual scene under Settings > Hotkeys lets you switch directly to any specific scene with one keypress, rather than only being able to cycle to the next or previous scene in the list, which matters for streamers who need to jump non-sequentially between scenes during a live broadcast.