Have you ever wanted to open the Terminal app on your Mac using just a keyboard shortcut? Instead of going through Spotlight by typing "Terminal" and pressing Enter—though that works fine—you can actually create your own custom keyboard shortcut to launch Terminal directly in macOS.

This guide will show you how to use a keyboard shortcut to open the Terminal app, which is done by setting up a custom shortcut using the Shortcuts app.

How to Create a Keyboard Shortcut for Opening Terminal on Mac Using Shortcuts

You can easily create a keyboard shortcut to open Terminal using the Shortcuts app. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Shortcuts app on your Mac, then go to the “File” menu and select New Shortcut

2. In the suggestions panel on the right, double-click on the “Open App” action. If you don’t see it immediately, try searching for it. Once selected, it will appear in the left-side workflow panel

3. Click the word 'App' to bring up a dropdown list of available apps, then choose “Terminal”

4. Now click on the window title bar and give your shortcut a name, such as “Open Terminal”. Then, click the settings icon in the right-side options panel

5. Select the “Add Keyboard Shortcut” option and press the key combination you'd like to use for launching Terminal (for example, shift fn ctrl T as shown in this tutorial)

6. Switch focus to another application on your Mac, then test your new shortcut by pressing the keys you set (like shift fn ctrl T). The Terminal app should open instantly

7. Close the Shortcuts app—the shortcut named “Open Terminal” will be saved automatically

And just like that, you now have a working keyboard shortcut to open the Terminal from anywhere in macOS.

Make sure your chosen shortcut doesn’t conflict with any existing ones—which is why we used a more unique combination in our example. If you pick one that's already taken, it won't work properly.

This same method can be applied to open any other app via a keyboard shortcut. We’re focusing on Terminal here, but it’s also handy for apps like Activity Monitor or anything else you frequently use.

We’ve focused on using the Shortcuts app for this task, but if you prefer, you can also use Automator to achieve the same result. Automator works well with older versions of macOS too. If your system doesn’t support the Shortcuts app or you simply prefer not to use it, you can build a Quick Action in Automator using the “Launch Application” action, and then assign a keyboard shortcut manually in the Keyboard Shortcuts section of System Settings.

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