Game

Grand Theft Auto V on a Mac with a controller

The Grand Theft Auto V layout is built into InputConfig, free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.

On a Mac: No Mac version. It plays on a Mac through a cloud service that carries it, or through CrossOver and the Game Porting Toolkit, where it runs but rarely sees a controller. This layout covers the second case, and the first when the browser does not pass your pad.

You can play GTA V on a Mac with a controller, through a stream or through CrossOver and the Game Porting Toolkit, and this layout covers the case where the controller vanishes. A cloud service that carries the game, or a Windows PC you stream from, usually passes the pad straight through to the game's own excellent support. Locally on Apple silicon, the game inside the layer usually sees a keyboard and a mouse and nothing else.

So this is the keyboard and mouse GTA V, sent from a controller: right click aims, left click fires, W is both walk and accelerate, and F gets you into and out of every car in the state.

On this page: 9 sections

1. The layout, control by control
2. How the layout thinks
3. Add what is missing
4. Online, anti-cheat, and the game's own pad support
5. Grand Theft Auto V controller support: controller or keyboard
6. If your controller is not working in Grand Theft Auto V
7. Get it in two clicks
8. Grand Theft Auto V controls: every button and the key it sends
9. Questions

The layout, control by control

How the layout thinks

• Walk and drive. The left stick is W, A, S and D. On foot that is walking. In a car it is throttle, brake and steering, because GTA changes what the keys mean when you get in. One stick does both jobs without the preset knowing which you are in.
• Look. The right stick is the mouse, so it looks on foot and turns the camera in a car.
• Fight. The right trigger fires and the left trigger aims, the console arrangement, and the one that matters most in a firefight.
• Face buttons. Space on the bottom (jump on foot, handbrake in a car), F on the right to enter and exit vehicles, reload on the left, and E on the top for the context action.
• Menus. Create opens the map and Options pauses.

GTA switches what the keys mean when you get in a car, so one layout covers walking and driving.

Add what is missing

• Sprint. Shift. Put it on the left stick click, set to Repeats while held for the console tap-to-sprint rhythm, or Toggles on and off if you would rather it stayed on.
• Weapon wheel. Tab holds the wheel open and the mouse picks. Bind Tab to the left bumper as a held key and choose with the right stick. It works better than it sounds.
• Phone, cover and cinematic camera. Up arrow, Q and R. The D-pad is free: phone on up, cover on left, camera on right, and the horn (E) on down.
• Driving feel. Steering from a digital A and D is twitchy at speed. Raise the Deadzone on the two steering rows so a small correction does not snap the wheel, or switch to the Smooth curve.

A bigger deadzone on the steering rows is the single best fix for driving.

Online, anti-cheat, and the game's own pad support

• Online. GTA Online through a wrapper is its own adventure, and BattlEye has opinions about translation layers that have nothing to do with controllers. Whether the game runs online in your setup is a question for the wrapper's community.
• The input side. InputConfig produces keyboard and mouse events on the Mac and never touches the game.
• Analog steering. Not through keyboard binds. A and D are on or off. Real analog steering needs the game to see a pad.

Whenever the game can see the pad, use its own controller support and leave the preset off, so presses do not arrive twice. Inside a wrapper it often cannot, and that is when this layout is the way to play.

Grand Theft Auto V controller support: controller or keyboard

Steam's store page lists full controller support for Grand Theft Auto V, so the game was made to be played on a controller, menus included. A keyboard and mouse work as well, and the choice is yours. On a Mac, use the game's own controller support first when it sees your pad; this layout is for a pad it does not see, or for buttons it will not let you move. Full support listed means the controller is a first-class way to play Grand Theft Auto V.

From Steam's listing, checked in October 2026. Every game's listing is in Mac games with controller support.

If your controller is not working in Grand Theft Auto V

When Grand Theft Auto V does not react to your controller on a Mac, climb this ladder, smallest step first:

1. Check that the Mac sees the controller. Open the gamepad tester and press a button. If nothing lights up there, the problem is the connection, and a controller that is connected but not working covers that first.
2. Expect less inside a wrapper. In CrossOver or the Game Porting Toolkit, Wine passes a controller to Grand Theft Auto V only some of the time, and the keyboard and mouse get through every time. Using a controller with CrossOver games has the checks.
3. Play it from keys. If Grand Theft Auto V still ignores the pad, activate this layout. It sends the keyboard and mouse controls Grand Theft Auto V already reads. Turn the game's own controller option off while it runs, or a press can arrive twice. The layout works whether or not Grand Theft Auto V ever sees the controller.

Get it in two clicks

1. Get InputConfig free on the Mac App Store, open it, and click Smart Preset Maker on the welcome screen.
2. Search for Grand Theft Auto V and pick it. The layout is created as a preset in your sidebar, named and ready.
3. Press Activate. Every row can be changed afterwards: the editor's Scan button rebinds any control the moment you touch it.

To check the controller itself first, the gamepad tester shows every button and stick live in your browser.

Grand Theft Auto V controls: every button and the key it sends

The Sends column is Grand Theft Auto V's default keyboard and mouse controls, as this layout expects them. If you changed a key in the game's settings, change the same row in InputConfig.

Button names follow the Xbox / PlayStation pair shown in the editor, so A / Cross is the bottom face button on either pad. On a Switch Pro Controller the bottom button is labeled B; the mapping still fires on position.

Questions

Related

• Controller macros, turbo, and toggle on a Mac
• Deadzones and calibration
• One-stick driving
• Play any Mac game with a controller
• Cyberpunk 2077 on a Mac with a controller
• Controller not working in CrossOver, Whisky, or Game Porting Toolkit games
• Red Dead Redemption 2 on a Mac with a controller
• Far Cry 6 on a Mac with a controller
• Lies of P on a Mac with a controller

Completely free. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon. Open source on GitHub.

Updated October 16, 2026