How to middle click on a Mac trackpad

Updated November 2026

A trackpad has no middle button, so a middle click looks impossible. It is not. For opening a link in a new tab macOS already has a shortcut and you need nothing else. For a real middle click, a three-finger tap or a held Fn key will do it — and you can keep Look Up as well, which most instructions tell you to give up.

The short answer

• Command-click (⌘-click) already opens a link in a new tab. Safari names that shortcut in its own settings. If links are all you were after, you are done.
• A real middle click needs a small app. WheelClick is free on the Mac App Store and does the three-finger tap. Mouse Aide is a one-time $1.99 and does it as one switch of a wider set.
• In Mouse Aide a trackpad gets two switches — Tap with three fingers, and Hold Fn and click. Any mouse gets the second one.
• Each switch is per device, and stays off until you turn it on.

Nearly every set of instructions for this tells you to switch Look Up off to free the three-finger tap. You do not have to give it up. Move Look Up to a force click instead and you keep both — that is the one thing this guide does differently, and it is covered below.

Step by step

1. Open Mouse Aide from its menu bar icon and choose Settings.
2. Scroll once with the trackpad you want to use. A device appears in Settings only after it has scrolled, so the list holds the things you actually use rather than everything that has ever been plugged in.
3. Grant Accessibility permission — called Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 — if you have not already. macOS lets an app post a click only with that permission, so every app of this kind asks for it.
4. Select that trackpad in the list and find its Middle click section.
5. Turn on Tap with three fingers. Tap a link with three fingers and it opens in a new tab. The trackpad's own gestures are never changed.
6. Or turn on Hold Fn and click instead, and hold Fn — the globe key on newer Mac keyboards — as you click. That switch works on a mouse as well as a trackpad.

Try a middle click test

The three ways, side by side

Try the first one before you install anything. It is built into macOS and it covers the reason most people want a middle click in the first place.

Command-click is the shortest route and costs nothing, but it is a browser convention rather than a middle click: the Mac sends an ordinary click with a key held, and the browser decides to open a new tab. The other two send a real middle click, so whatever an app does with one, it does.

Tips

You may not need an app for links

Safari's settings list a shortcut named "⌘-click opens a link in a new tab". Whether that new tab comes to the front is a separate setting, "When a new tab or window opens, make it active". If opening links is the only reason you wanted a middle click, set those two to your taste and stop here — see Apple's guide to opening webpages in tabs.

Keep Look Up as well, on a force click

macOS gives the three-finger tap to Look Up, which is why most instructions tell you to switch Look Up off. You do not have to. Open System Settings, go to Trackpad and then Point & Click, and set Look up & data detectors to Force Click with One Finger. The three-finger tap is then free for a middle click, and you look a word up by pressing harder instead. Both controls live on the same pane — Apple: change trackpad settings.

A mouse with a real middle button needs none of this

If your mouse has a middle button it already middle clicks. Hold Fn and click still works there, and it earns its place in one case: if you have given that middle button another job — Mission Control, the app launcher, Copy, Paste, a new tab, or an app of your choice — then a click with Fn held is still an ordinary middle click, so you keep both.

Common problems

It says Paused

Paused means the trackpad already uses three fingers for something else, and Mouse Aide waits rather than make one tap do two things. There are two causes, each with its own fix:

• Look Up has the tap — System Settings → Trackpad → Point & Click, and set Look up & data detectors to Force Click with One Finger.
• Three-finger dragging has it — System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control → Trackpad Options…, then choose another Dragging style.

Mouse Aide tells you which of the two it is. It only reads these settings; it never changes them for you.

It turned itself off

The message reads "turned off as a precaution: it reached its limit of eight middle clicks in three seconds." Nobody tapping between links goes that fast, so this means something was posting clicks by itself rather than you doing it. Turn the switch back on to use it again. Hold Fn and click is not counted, because a held key turns one real press into one click and so cannot run away.

One tap gives two middle clicks

Another app is already making a middle click out of a three-finger tap, so both fire at once. Mouse Aide names the app when it recognizes one — it knows MiddleClick, WheelClick and MiddleTouch. Switch the three-finger tap off in one of the two apps, or use Hold Fn and click instead.

Frequently asked questions

How do I middle click on a Mac trackpad?

A trackpad has no middle button, so a small app has to make the click for you. In Mouse Aide: Reverse Scroll a trackpad gets two switches in its Middle click section: Tap with three fingers, and Hold Fn and click. Each is set separately for each device and stays off until you turn it on. If all you want is to open a link in a new tab, you need no app at all: Command-click already does that, and Safari names the shortcut in its own settings.

Does Command-click do the same thing as a middle click on a Mac?

Not quite. Command-click is a browser convention: the Mac sends an ordinary click with a key held, and the browser chooses to open the link in a new tab. Safari has a setting named for it, and a second setting decides whether that tab comes to the front. A middle click is a different button press, which any app can read and act on in its own way, so it covers everything Command-click does not.

Can I middle click on a Mac trackpad without turning off Look Up?

Yes. Most instructions tell you to switch Look Up off to free the three-finger tap, but you can move it instead of losing it. In System Settings, under Trackpad and then Point & Click, set Look up & data detectors to Force Click with One Finger. The three-finger tap is then free for a middle click, and you look a word up by pressing harder.

Why does my three-finger middle click say Paused?

Paused means the trackpad already uses three fingers for something else, so one tap would do two things at once. There are two causes. If Look Up has the tap, set Look up & data detectors to Force Click with One Finger in Trackpad settings. If three-finger dragging has it, choose another Dragging style under Accessibility, in Pointer Control and then Trackpad Options. Mouse Aide: Reverse Scroll says which of the two it is, and only reads these settings rather than changing them.

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