Is There a Mac Shortcut to Keep a Window on Top? No — Here Are Four Workarounds

Short answer: macOS has no keyboard shortcut for keeping a window on top — and no such feature at all.

You can open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts and go through every category. There is no “pin window” entry. It isn’t hidden; Apple never built it.

Why not

macOS manages windows a different way: Mission Control, Spaces, Split View, Stage Manager. The underlying assumption is that you don’t need everything on top at once — you need to handle one thing and put the rest away.

So the system gives you “switch to that desktop” and “put two windows side by side”. It does not give you “let this window sit above all others”. Whether that’s the right trade-off depends on how you work.

Four workarounds, and what they cost

Option 1: Built-in macOS (no pin key, only detours)

Action	Shortcut
Enter/exit full screen	⌃⌘F
Open Mission Control	⌃↑ (or three-finger swipe up)
Tile windows	Hover the green button, or drag to a screen edge
Switch desktop	⌃← / ⌃→

These help you find a window. They don’t let you see two at once, and the switch still interrupts what you were doing.

Option 2: BetterTouchTool (bind your own)

BTT has a Pin/Unpin Window to Float on Top action. Assign it to something like ⌃⌥T and one press floats the focused window, another releases it.

• Cost: $22 for the whole automation suite, plus a trip through preferences
• Limit: the window floats at full size, and it disappears when you enter a full-screen app

Option 3: Rectangle Pro (a toggle in a window manager)

The paid version of Rectangle ($10) adds an always-on-top toggle in the window menu and via hotkey.

• Cost: $10
• Limit: also confined to the current Space; splitting and tiling are its real job

Option 4: PipNow (⌘⌥P — shrink instead of pin)

PipNow binds ⌘⌥P: the current window becomes a floating mini window above every app. A second shortcut, ⌘⌥F, lets you drag a region and float only that part.

The difference isn’t whether there’s a shortcut. It’s what the window becomes:

	macOS	BTT	Rectangle Pro	PipNow
Shortcut	none	custom	custom	⌘⌥P
Result	switch / tile	window floats (full size)	window floats (full size)	shrinks to a corner
Screen footprint	—	full window	full window	a small corner
Seeing detail	—	resize	resize	hover for enlarged preview
Interacting	—	✅	✅	✅ inside the preview
Multiple at once	—	each takes space	each takes space	unlimited, can stack

How to choose

• Occasionally comparing two windows → built-in Split View. Don’t install anything.
• Already running BTT or Rectangle Pro → bind a key. Zero extra cost.
• Want to work while keeping an eye on something (an AI task, a livestream, a chart, a chat) → you don’t actually want pinning. A full-size floating window still occupies space. You want a small window.

One honest note: if you searched this question, you probably want “see it without switching”. The answer isn’t the missing system shortcut — it’s changing the shape of the window instead of forcing it to the front.

Related: five ways to keep a window in front and how PipNow compares to native PiP.