SplitCam is free streaming software for Twitch on PC and Mac. Log in to your Twitch account and SplitCam sets up the connection for you, or paste your stream key by hand. Then build a scene with your camera and your game, and click Go Live.
Before step 1: download and install SplitCam (it is free) and make a Twitch account if you do not have one. Steps 1–4 are one-time setup; next time you only need step 5.
Open Stream Settings, add a new stream and choose Twitch. The stream key is the private code that tells Twitch which channel the video belongs to. There are two ways to give it to SplitCam. Option A — log in. Log in to Twitch from SplitCam: on Windows the app then gets your stream key itself, and on a Mac it loads your broadcast settings from Twitch. Option B — paste the key. In Twitch open the Creator Dashboard, go to Settings → Stream, copy your stream key and paste it into Stream Settings.
A scene is a stack of layers. Start small: one layer for your camera (a webcam, or your phone used as a wireless camera) and one layer for what you play or show. On Windows, add the Capture Game source; if SplitCam cannot capture the game directly, it captures the game window instead. On a Mac, use screen or window capture. Overlays and donation alerts from a web service go in as a Web Browser source (called Browser on a Mac): paste the address of the widget the service gives you.
On Windows open the Audio Mixer (on a Mac, look at the audio layers) and check that your microphone and your system audio (the game, your music) are both there. If one is missing, add it as a Microphone or System Audio source. Talk, play the game for a few seconds, watch the meters, and mute every source you do not want viewers to hear.
In Stream Settings choose the resolution, the frame rate (frames per second) and the bitrate (how much video data you send each second). Twitch recommends 6 Mbps for 1080p at 60 frames per second, and an upload speed about 30% above your bitrate, so 6 Mbps needs roughly 8 Mbps. Not sure what to pick? On Windows, use the Recommended preset and the Quick start wizard, which tests your upload speed and your hardware.
If you also want to stream to YouTube or Kick, add them in Stream Settings first: on Windows, new destinations cannot be added while a broadcast is running. Before you start, set your stream title and category in the Twitch Creator Dashboard. Then click Go Live; Twitch starts receiving your video from your computer. Recording to a file can run at the same time, so you also keep a copy on your own disk.
None of these is required. All of them save you a bad first evening.
Show your hands or your desk from another angle without buying a capture card: SplitCam can use a phone as a wireless camera. Pairing is explained on the phone as a webcam page.
A local recording shows your framing, your microphone level and your game capture, and it costs nothing — nobody watches it. Fix what you hear and see, then go live.
Twitch lets you stream to other live-streaming services at the same time, under its Simulcast Guidelines: keep your Twitch stream at least as good as the others (including your presence in Twitch chat), do not send Twitch viewers to your stream elsewhere, and do not show a merged chat of other platforms on Twitch. SplitCam sends to each platform directly — how multiple destinations work.
Once you stream regularly, a Stream Deck (Windows) or the SplitCam Remote phone app can switch scenes and start or stop the stream without switching windows. See the Stream Deck page.
Already stream every week? The streamer setup page is a checklist of what to configure once.
Any program that can send your camera, your game and your microphone to Twitch. SplitCam is free, has no watermark and runs on Windows 10 (version 2004 or newer), Windows 11 and macOS 13 or newer. You connect it to your Twitch account and it sends the video straight to Twitch.
Make a Twitch account, install streaming software, connect it to the account and build a first scene: one camera, one game source and a microphone. Then go live. Overlays, alerts and more destinations can wait until after your first stream.
The same way as on a PC. A laptop usually has less spare power than a desktop, so let the stream use the hardware encoder of its graphics chip (SplitCam detects it on its own), keep the charger plugged in, and lower the resolution or the frame rate if the stream stutters.
In Twitch open the Creator Dashboard, go to Settings → Stream and copy your stream key; it is in the Stream Key & Preferences section. If you log in to Twitch from SplitCam on Windows you do not need to copy it at all: the app gets it itself. On a Mac, logging in loads your broadcast settings from Twitch. Never show the key on screen while you are live.
Twitch resets your stream key whenever you change your Twitch password, and can reset it in other cases too. A key you pasted then stops working and you paste the new one. If you log in from SplitCam on Windows instead, the app gets the key again by itself.
Yes. SplitCam for macOS (13 or newer) logs in to Twitch over OAuth since v1.12 (build 131) and loads your broadcast settings from Twitch, so you do not retype them. Capture Game is the Windows source; on a Mac you capture the screen or a window.
Free download for Windows and macOS. No card, no SplitCam account, no watermark — every feature is open from the first launch.
⬇ Free Download