Short answer: macOS has no setting that turns Command Tab off. It is not in Keyboard Shortcuts, it cannot be reassigned there, and no Terminal command reaches it.
Below: why it is the one shortcut Apple keeps for itself, the three fixes people try that quietly do nothing, and the two that actually work.
Nearly every shortcut on a Mac belongs to an app. Safari has a Quit item, a Close item and a New Tab item, and System Settings will happily let you rebind any of them.
Command Tab belongs to no app. Open any menu on your Mac and look for a Switch Apps command: there isn't one, anywhere. macOS handles the keystroke itself, before the app you are typing in is ever told a key was pressed.
That is also why it is so hard to shake. It keeps working when an app is frozen, on the login screen, and in apps that have no menus at all. It is part of the system rather than part of a program, and Apple has never exposed a switch for it.
Worth two minutes to confirm with your own eyes. Mission Control, Spotlight, screenshots, input sources and dozens of others are all listed and all rebindable. Scroll the whole panel. The app switcher is simply not in it, in any category.
A lot of advice online tells you to write a new value into com.apple.symbolichotkeys, the file behind that Settings panel. We read what is actually in that file on macOS 26: 23 shortcuts are defined and not one of them uses the Tab key. There is no entry for the app switcher, so there is nothing to switch off. Commands that claim to do it are editing a setting that does not exist.
This is the normal, permission-free way a Mac app grabs a key combination, and it is how Still Dock guards Command Q and Command W. For Command Tab, macOS accepts the request, reports success, and then ignores it completely. The switcher still opens and the app is never told the key was pressed. We tested this on macOS 26 in August 2026, which is why we can be blunt about it: no ordinary app can claim Command Tab, no matter what it promises.
Some apps suppress the switcher themselves while they are the app you are using, which is why Command Tab already does nothing in certain games. Check that app's own settings first, and try its proper full screen mode. The catch is that it lasts only while that app is in front. It is not a setting for your Mac, it is a setting for that one app.
An open source keyboard remapper that can intercept Command Tab. It is free, it works, and it is a serious piece of software with its own rules files and a learning curve. If you already use it, add a rule and you are done. If you do not, it is a lot of tool for one shortcut.
Still Dock locks your Mac's Dock, and stops other things changing by accident too. Version 1.6 adds Stop ⌘Tab switching apps to the menu bar, next to the existing Command Q and Command W guards, with three settings:
Both directions are covered, so Shift Command Tab stops too. Plain Tab is untouched and still moves between fields and indents text as normal.
No, and this is worth being clear about, because "everywhere" sounds alarming.
Every blocked press puts a small message on screen telling you it is off and where to turn it back on. The switch itself lives in the menu bar at the top of your screen, which your mouse or trackpad can always reach whatever is happening on the keyboard. Clicking apps in the Dock, clicking any window, and Mission Control all keep working normally. Nothing about this is one way.
Still Dock comes in two versions and this feature is in the direct download only. That is not a sales tactic, it is a wall.
Blocking a key that macOS handles itself requires Accessibility permission, the setting that lets an app see keystrokes meant for other apps. Apple does not permit that in a sandboxed App Store app, and rejected an earlier Still Dock build for asking. So the App Store version does not show the switch at all, rather than showing one that cannot work. Everything else in Still Dock is identical in both.
Aiming for Command Tab and hitting something worse? Command Q quits the whole app and Command W closes your tab, and both sit near it: how to disable Command Q and how to disable Command W.
Usually the opposite problem to this page. Check three things. A stuck modifier key, which you can see in System Settings under Keyboard if the Command key is being held. A dialog or full screen app that is deliberately suppressing the switcher, in which case pressing Escape or leaving full screen restores it. Or a keyboard remapper you installed and forgot about, such as Karabiner-Elements or an app like Still Dock with the switcher turned off. Quitting that app is the quickest test.
Click the app in the Dock, or click any of its windows. Mission Control, on F3 or a three finger swipe up, shows everything open at once. Control Up does the same. Within one app, Command backtick moves between that app's own windows and is a different shortcut entirely.
Not in System Settings, for the same reason you cannot switch it off there: it is not listed. A remapper such as Karabiner-Elements can do it. Replacement app switchers exist too, and they all need Accessibility permission for the same reason.
No. Command Tab moves between applications. Command backtick, the key above Tab, moves between windows of the app you are already in. Command backtick is in System Settings and can be changed there, which is often what people actually wanted.
Yes, if you use the Everywhere setting. Many games already suppress it by themselves in full screen, so check whether you need to do anything at all first.
Yes, Accessibility, and macOS will ask you for it. That is the permission that lets an app see a keystroke before the app you are typing in does, and there is no way to intercept Command Tab without it. Anything claiming to disable Command Tab with no permission at all cannot be doing what it says.