The answer for Safari, in four clicks
In Safari, open the Safari menu in the menu bar, choose Settings… (or press Command–Comma), click the Search tab, and pick from the Search engine pop-up menu. That covers Safari alone: Chrome and Firefox each store a default of their own, and Spotlight has no engine setting at all.
Written against macOS 26 and Safari 26 in August 2026. On macOS 12 Monterey and earlier the menu item reads Preferences… rather than Settings…; everything after that has been consistent for years.
- Bring Safari to the front so that Safari appears at the left of the menu bar, next to the Apple logo.
- Click Safari → Settings….
- Click Search in the row of icons across the top of the window.
- Click the Search engine pop-up menu and choose an engine.
- Below it, decide whether Also use in Private Browsing stays ticked. Untick it and a second pop-up appears, letting private windows use a different engine.
- Close the window. There is no Apply button; the next query typed into the address bar goes to the new engine.
Safari's list cannot be extended
The pop-up offers Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia on a Mac set to a United States region, with variations elsewhere. Unlike every other desktop browser, Safari provides no way to add an engine by supplying its query URL — there is no Add button, and no hidden preference that produces one. If you want Kagi, Startpage, Mojeek or a self-hosted instance in Safari's address bar, the options are a Safari extension published by that engine that redirects searches after they are issued, or a different browser.
Two neighbouring features on the same Search pane are worth setting deliberately while you are there. Include Safari Suggestions sends what you type to Apple as well as to your engine, which is worth knowing if you changed engines specifically to limit who receives your queries. Enable Quick Website Search lets you type a site's name followed by a term to search inside that site directly from the address bar, and the Manage Websites… button beside it shows which sites Safari has learned. Neither is affected by which engine you chose.
Chrome and Firefox keep their own, per profile
A Mac with three browsers has three independent defaults, and there is no macOS setting that unifies them.
- Chrome: Chrome → Settings (Command–Comma), then Search engine in the left sidebar. Chrome's setting belongs to the profile, so a work profile and a personal profile on the same Mac can differ, and switching profiles switches engines with it.
- Firefox: Firefox → Settings, then Search in the sidebar, where Default Search Engine is the first control. Firefox also allows a separate engine for private windows and can add engines offered by websites you visit.
Which browser opens a link clicked in Mail, Messages or a document is a macOS-level choice and not a browser one: System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser. Changing it moves where links land without changing any engine, and this is the most common reason a careful Safari change appears to have no effect — the links were never opening in Safari.
Spotlight is separate again
Press Command–Space and macOS opens Spotlight, which searches the Mac itself — applications, documents, mail, calendar entries — and blends in suggestions from Apple's own services. It is not issuing a query to Google or to whatever you selected in Safari, and there is no menu anywhere in macOS that assigns Spotlight a search engine. When a Spotlight result does take you to the web, it opens your default browser, and the engine you end up on is that browser's.
What you can control is how much Spotlight involves the network at all. In macOS 15 and later this lives in System Settings → Spotlight; on macOS 14 and earlier it is folded into Siri & Spotlight. The pane lists the categories Spotlight is allowed to return and the option covering Apple's own suggestions. Turning suggestions off narrows Spotlight to local results; it does not redirect it to another engine, because there is nothing to redirect it to.
Siri is separate from both. It answers from Apple's services and its data partnerships, and no browser preference reaches it.
Profiles, windows and what carries over
Safari on recent macOS supports profiles, which keep separate history, cookies, tab groups, favourites and extensions for, say, work and personal use. The search engine is not one of the things a profile carries — it is set once for Safari and applies to all of them, which surprises people who expect the compartments to be complete.
Nothing about switching engines is destructive. Open tabs stay open, tab groups and pinned tabs are untouched, bookmarks, reading list and Keychain passwords are unaffected, and a results page already on screen keeps showing the old engine's results until the search is run again. If iCloud is syncing Safari across your Mac, iPhone and iPad, the engine choice generally propagates with the rest of your Safari settings, so a change made on one Apple device may appear on the others; a change made in Chrome on the Mac will not, unless Chrome sync is on and covering that profile.
If it keeps reverting on a Mac
Macs get hijacked less often than Windows PCs, but the Mac version of the problem is distinctive enough to be worth recognising. It is usually adware installed as part of something else — a media player, a converter, a "cleaner", or a fake update prompt — and it works by chaining searches through a redirector so they arrive at a mainstream engine having passed through an intermediary that collects the query.
The tells and the places to look are Mac-specific:
- System Settings → General → Device Management. If a configuration profile is installed on a personal Mac that no employer administers, it should not be there; adware installs profiles to lock browser settings. Employer-managed Macs legitimately show one, and on those the setting may simply be enforced.
- System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions, for background items you do not recognise that reinstate the change after each restart.
- Each browser's extension list. In Safari that is Safari → Settings… → Extensions. An extension may legitimately hold the search behaviour; if you did not install it deliberately, remove it rather than repeatedly resetting the engine.
A genuine preference change persists through a restart and can be named by the person who made it. Anything that reappears after being changed back is being written by software, and the software is what has to go.
Which engine the Mac ends up asking
Safari's five entries resolve to fewer independent indexes than the count suggests. Google and Bing operate their own crawlers and rankings; DuckDuckGo composes its results largely from Bing while handling the query differently; Ecosia has drawn on partner indexes and spends its advertising income on tree planting. Choosing among those changes the commercial and privacy arrangement more than it changes the pages you are shown.
Because Safari cannot accept a custom engine, macOS is one of the platforms where the browser decision and the engine decision are really the same decision. A reader who wants an independently crawled index, or a paid engine that carries no advertising at all, is choosing Chrome, Firefox or another browser as a consequence — not because those browsers are better, but because Safari's menu is closed.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the search engine setting in Safari on a Mac?
Safari menu → Settings… → Search tab, in the Search engine pop-up menu. Command–Comma opens the same window from within Safari. On macOS 12 and earlier the menu item is called Preferences… instead of Settings…, and the Search tab is in the same place. There is no equivalent control inside a Safari window.
Can I add Kagi or Startpage to Safari on a Mac?
Not to the Search engine menu — Safari, alone among desktop browsers, has no facility for adding an engine by query URL. The routes are a Safari extension published by that engine which redirects searches, or using Chrome, Firefox or another browser that supports custom engines. Bookmarking the engine's page also works for occasional use.
How do I change the search engine Spotlight uses?
There is no such setting. Spotlight searches your Mac and adds suggestions from Apple's services; it does not run a query on a chosen engine. Web results open in your default browser and use that browser's engine. System Settings → Spotlight controls which categories appear and whether Apple's suggestions are included, nothing more.
Does changing Safari's engine change Chrome or Firefox on the same Mac?
No. Each browser stores its own default, and in Chrome the setting belongs to the individual profile rather than to the application. It is entirely normal for a Mac to have Safari, Chrome and Firefox pointed at three different engines. Identify which browser produced an unexpected result before assuming a setting failed.
Does the search engine sync between my Mac, iPhone and iPad?
Safari's settings generally propagate through iCloud when Safari syncing is enabled, so a change on one Apple device often appears on the others. Chrome and Firefox sync separately through their own accounts and only if sync is switched on and covering that profile. Nothing syncs between different browsers.
Why do my Mac searches keep going through a site I did not choose?
That pattern indicates adware rather than a preference. Check System Settings → General → Device Management for a configuration profile you did not install, Login Items & Extensions for unfamiliar background items, and each browser's extension list. Removing the software is the fix; resetting the engine while it remains installed only lasts until the next restart.
What is the difference between the default browser and the default search engine on macOS?
The default browser, set in System Settings → Desktop & Dock, determines which application opens links clicked outside a browser. The search engine is a preference held inside each browser and applies to queries typed into its address bar. They are set in different places and neither one affects the other.