How to use a teleprompter for YouTube on a Mac

You don't need a studio to film a YouTube video on a Mac. QuickTime Player records from your Mac's camera and microphone, and it's already installed. What it doesn't have is a teleprompter. Add one that sits right under the camera and you can read a script while looking at your viewers.

Koi 2.0 has one in the notch. Open the notch's Tools, pick Teleprompter, paste your script and press Start, then record in QuickTime. Your script rolls under the lens and follows your voice, and it stays out of screen recordings.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. The QuickTime steps come from Apple's own guides, checked October 25, 2026.

1. Hover the notch at the top of your screen, open Koi's Tools and pick Teleprompter.
2. Paste your script. Koi keeps the last one, handy for a second take.
3. Pick how it's paced: following your voice, or a steady speed from 60 to 260 words a minute.
4. Press Start. The notch grows down into a black panel right under the camera.
5. Pause it while you set up, with Space or the pause button on the small strip under the pointer, and play it again once you're rolling. A click on another app hands the keys back to that app.

Following your voice, Koi hears you on the Mac and keeps your line at the reading spot, waiting when you pause. Nothing it hears is kept, and neither the sound nor the script is sent anywhere. ⌘↑ jumps back to the top for the next take. If you film through a teleprompter glass, the mirror switch flips the text.

1. Open QuickTime Player and choose File, then New Movie Recording.
2. Click the menu next to the record button and pick your camera, microphone and quality.
3. Click the record button to start, read your script, and click it again to stop.
4. Choose File, then Save, to name the recording and keep it.

Apple says High records H.264 video with AAC audio, and Maximum records Apple ProRes 422 with Linear PCM audio (Apple's guide). High is plenty for most YouTube videos.

Filming a tutorial instead? In QuickTime Player, choose File, then New Screen Recording, and the Screenshot toolbar opens with a Record button (Apple's guide). While Koi's teleprompter is on, the notch is hidden from screen capture, so apps like Zoom, Meet and Teams leave it out of what they share or record, so you can read your voiceover and the video shows only what you're demoing.

• Write for the ear. Short sentences, the words you'd use with a friend.
• Keep the hook in your own words, off script. The first seconds matter most.
• Record in short sections. One idea per take is easier to read and to edit.
• Look straight into the lens at the end of each point.
• Face a window for light, and keep your eyes near the top of the frame.

More on reading near the lens in how to read a script while looking at the camera, and every option in the best teleprompter apps for Mac.

QuickTime Player is free and already on your Mac. Koi has no free plan and no trial: Pro is $20 a month, or $7 for a first week, and Lifetime is paid once. It also brings dictation in any app, call recording and an assistant in your notch. See the plans.