MacBook notch size:
every dimension, actually measured.

The numbers

Most notch dimensions floating around the internet are guesses read off screenshots. These aren't — I measured them with Apple's own APIs on real hardware while building NotchBay, because when your app lives inside the notch, being a point off is visible.

* Air values are consistent with reports and the same design ratio, but I've only put calipers (well, NSScreen) on the Pros I own. Measured rows are exact.

Two details most posts get wrong: the notch's height is exactly the menu bar's height at default scaling (that's by design, not coincidence), and if you change the display's scaled resolution, the notch's point size changes with it while its physical size obviously doesn't.

Measure your own in 10 lines

macOS exposes the notch through NSScreen. The safe-area inset gives you the height, and the auxiliary top areas give you everything to the left and right of the camera housing — subtract and you have the exact cutout:

// Swift — paste into a Playground on any notched MacBook
import AppKit

let screen = NSScreen.main!
let notchHeight = screen.safeAreaInsets.top            // 38 pt on a 16″

if let left = screen.auxiliaryTopLeftArea,
   let right = screen.auxiliaryTopRightArea {
    let notchWidth = screen.frame.width - left.width - right.width
    print("Notch: \(notchWidth) × \(notchHeight) pt")   // 220.0 × 38.0
}

If safeAreaInsets.top returns 0, the Mac has no notch (or the app is running in a fullscreen space that hides it).

The design details nobody documents

Building an app that pretends to be part of the notch forces you to learn its geometry the hard way. The details that matter:

• Corner radii: the hardware cutout's corners measure roughly 4 pt at the top and 8 pt at the bottom — the bottom flares wider, which is why software that mimics the notch with equal radii looks subtly wrong.
• The menu bar draws slightly deeper than the physical cutout — around 5 pt — so menu bar backgrounds fully cover the notch region with margin.
• No Face ID: the housing holds a 1080p camera, an ambient light sensor, and the camera indicator LED. No TrueDepth array, despite the space looking similar to an iPhone's.
• Menu bar items flow around it: macOS treats the notch as an exclusion zone — items that don't fit to its left simply don't render, which is why menu-bar managers exist.

For comparison, Apple's iPhone Dynamic Island is 230–250 pt wide with a 44 pt corner radius, per Apple's Human Interface Guidelines — the Mac notch is proportionally wider and squarer because it holds a bigger camera in a thinner lid.

The notch doesn't cost you screen space

The most persistent myth: that the notch “eats” part of your display. It's the opposite. The 16″ panel is 1800×1169 points — that's 44 extra rows of points compared to the 16:10 frame (1800×1125) older MacBooks would have given you. The menu bar moved up into that bonus strip, and the notch lives there with it.

So hiding the notch with a black-bar utility doesn't reclaim anything — it just paints the bonus strip black. The more interesting move, and the reason NotchBay exists, is putting that strip to work: it's permanent, always visible, and sits exactly where your eyes already go for system status.

Apps that put the notch to work

A small ecosystem has grown around this strip of screen. The honest landscape:

• NotchBay — the one I build: Dynamic Island-style live activities (music, calendar, AirPods, Zoom/Meet call controls), a clipboard tray, on-device dictation, and drop-to-share links via your own Google Drive. Everything on-device.
• boring.notch — open-source pioneer of the category; media controls and a file shelf.
• NotchNook — polished commercial option with media, mirror and tray features.
• Alcove — minimal, tasteful media and battery activities.

They differ on privacy models, macOS support and depth — a full feature-by-feature comparison is coming to this Journal, built from the same measure-don't-guess approach as this page.

Frequently asked questions