How to hide the menu bar for just one app
For macOS 13 Ventura and later. Updated October 2026.
macOS has no setting for this: "Automatically hide and show the menu bar" applies to every app at once. There are two ways around it.
Put the app in full screen
Out of the box, macOS hides the menu bar in full-screen apps (the setting is on In Full Screen Only). To put an app in full screen, click the green button at the top left of its window, or press Control-Command-F. The bar comes back when you move the pointer to the top of the screen, and when you leave full screen.
The catch: a full-screen app takes over a space of its own, so other windows can't sit beside it the usual way, and some apps don't offer full screen at all.
Let Menu Bar Toggle hide it for that app
Menu Bar Toggle is a free app with per-app rules. Give an app a rule and the menu bar hides while that app is in front, then comes back as soon as you switch to anything else. No full screen needed.
- Install Menu Bar Toggle, click its icon in the menu bar and choose Settings….
- Under Per-app rules, click + and pick the app under Recently Used or Running Apps, or use Choose Application… to find it.
- Leave the rule on Auto-hide.
A rule can also do the opposite: set it to Always show and the bar stays visible for that app, even if you normally hide it. See How to show the menu bar only in certain apps.
If a rule doesn't seem to work, the app may show its windows from a helper: a remote desktop client, for example, may open each session in a separate viewer app. Add the app that's actually in front. It appears under Recently Used once you've used it.