How to Put Raycast or Alfred on ⌘Space (Without Fighting Spotlight)

⌘Space is probably the most valuable shortcut on a Mac. It’s easy to press, your thumb is already there, and years of Spotlight have trained you to reach for it. So when you switch to Raycast, Alfred, or LaunchBar, you want that combo too.

Getting it takes two steps. Most “my launcher hotkey doesn’t work” problems come from doing the second step without the first.

Step 1: Release ⌘Space from Spotlight

Spotlight registers ⌘Space as a system shortcut. If you leave it on, you now have two global hotkeys on one combo, and which one fires depends on registration order. That can change after a restart or an update, which is why this sometimes works for a week and then stops.

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts…
3. Select Spotlight in the sidebar.
4. Untick Show Spotlight search (⌘Space).
5. While you’re here, look at Show Finder search window (⌘⌥Space). If you want that combo for something else, untick it too.

This only removes the shortcut. Spotlight’s index stays on, and Finder search, Mail search, and other apps that depend on it keep working.

Step 2: Assign ⌘Space in your launcher

Raycast: open Raycast Settings (⌘, while Raycast is open) → General → Raycast Hotkey. Click the field and press ⌘Space. Raycast’s onboarding also offers to do this for you.

Alfred: open Alfred Preferences → General → Alfred Hotkey. Click the field and press ⌘Space.

LaunchBar: open Settings → Shortcuts and set the “Search in LaunchBar” shortcut.

Press ⌘Space from a few different apps to confirm it works everywhere, not only in the app you set it up from.

Want to keep Spotlight as well?

Plenty of people keep Spotlight around for the occasional file search. Go back to Keyboard Shortcuts → Spotlight, tick Show Spotlight search again, double-click its combo, and press a new one. ⌥Space is a popular choice, though some apps (ChatGPT’s desktop app, for example) suggest it too, so check before you commit.

When it still doesn’t work

If your launcher shows an error, or ⌘Space still opens the wrong thing, something else holds the combo. The usual suspects:

• A second launcher. You tried Alfred, moved to Raycast, and Alfred still starts at login with its hotkey registered. Quit it and remove it from System Settings → General → Login Items.
• Input sources. If you rebound “Select the previous input source” at some point, it might be on ⌘Space. Check Keyboard Shortcuts → Input Sources.
• A Karabiner or skhd rule that remaps ⌘Space before the launcher ever sees it.
• Stale registration. Quit the launcher and open it again so it registers the hotkey now that Spotlight has let go. A log out and back in clears anything left over.

You can guess through that list, or you can see who holds the combo. HotkeyClash scans running apps’ menus, your Karabiner-Elements and skhd configs, and macOS system shortcuts in one pass. Search the results for ⌘Space and you’ll see every claimant, marked red if it’s a guaranteed clash. It’s free and open source, runs on macOS 14+, and makes no network requests. Download it here.

Other launcher combos worth checking

Launchers tend to pick up more global hotkeys over time: clipboard history, window management, snippets, emoji search, AI chat. Each of those is another global hotkey that can shadow an app’s menu shortcut. Raycast’s clipboard history on ⌘⇧V or a window command on ⌃⌥← is easy to forget once it’s set up. It’s worth running a scan after you import a big set of launcher hotkeys, so you can see what they’re now hiding. The ten most common Mac shortcut conflicts is a good list to check against.