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Is There a Mac Shortcut to Translate Selected Text?

Published · 4 min read

No. Apple gives you no keyboard shortcut for translating selected text. You get one route: select, Control-click, choose Translate. On macOS 26.6.2, the Services list has no Apple translation item. For a real hotkey you need a utility such as Bilinguine, which requires macOS 26 and Open Anyway on first launch.

What was checked, and what was not

Checked Result
Apple's Mac User Guide, translation page Control-click, Translate; no default shortcut
System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services, macOS 26.6.2 No Apple Translate item
Translate.app on that Mac Not present

Not tested: an App Shortcut on the context-menu Translate item. Apple says App Shortcuts need an existing menu command, so this page does not suggest one. Checked October 2026.

Translate without a shortcut: the Control-click menu

This is the built-in method and needs no extra software.

  1. Select the text in the app.
  2. Hold Control and click it, then choose Translate followed by the selected text.
  3. Set the source and target languages with the pop-up menus in the panel.
  4. Click Copy Translation to put the result on the clipboard, or click the Play button to hear it.
  5. In an editable field, click Replace with Translation to swap the original text for the translation.

For offline use, download languages first under Translation Languages in System Settings; details are in how to translate on a Mac without internet.

If the Translate item is missing from an app's Control-click menu, Apple's page says only that translation works in some third-party apps and does not name them. That app is probably not covered (an assumption; Apple publishes no list). A tool that acts on selected text works in any app.

Why you cannot assign a key to it

macOS lets you create keyboard shortcuts in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. Two places matter here.

  • App Shortcuts bind a key to a menu command that already exists in an app. Apple's guide says the title must match exactly and that some apps do not allow custom shortcuts at all.
  • Services shortcuts bind a key to an item in the Services menu. A translation shortcut would have to live here, but on macOS 26.6.2 the list has no Apple translation item.

So Apple's guide documents no shortcut, and the Services list on macOS 26.6.2 has nothing to attach one to.

Which one should you use

How often you translate Use
Rarely, or you are on macOS older than 26 The Control-click menu
Many selections a day, on macOS 26 A tool with its own hotkey

A translator with its own hotkey

A dedicated utility removes the menu step: select, press a key, read the result. Several exist for the Mac; best offline translators for Mac compares them by supported macOS version and offline use.

Bilinguine is made by usbun, the studio behind this site. Select text in any app and press Control-Option-T (the default, configurable); the translation appears right away. Paragraphs and indentation are kept, and for a single word it shows dictionary entries. Other ways to start it: Control-click, Services, Translate with Bilinguine; an optional double Command-C; or typing and pasting text into its window.

It uses Apple Translation and the system dictionaries on the device, so the languages must be downloaded; after that it does not need internet. Setting them up is covered in downloading languages for offline translation on Mac, which also lists all 22.

Requirements:

  • macOS 26 (Tahoe) or newer, Apple silicon or Intel. It does not run on older systems.
  • It is not notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks the first launch (Open Anyway). Try to open it once, then go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway, and click Open at the second warning. Apple's guidance is to do this only for software you trust. After that it opens normally.
  • The code is closed, not open source.

Download: bilinguine.usbun.com.

Sources

Questions

Not from Apple. Its Mac User Guide documents translation through Control-click and Translate, with no default shortcut, and on macOS 26.6.2 the Keyboard Shortcuts > Services list has no Apple translation item. An App Shortcut on the context-menu item was not tested. A third-party tool such as Bilinguine adds a hotkey on macOS 26 and later.

Select the text, hold Control and click it, then choose Translate. Pick the source and target languages in the panel, then use Copy Translation, or Replace with Translation in an editable field. Download languages first under Translation Languages in System Settings if you need it offline.

Apple says translation works in different apps on Mac, including some third-party apps. It does not publish a list, so an app that lacks the Translate item in its Control-click menu may not be covered (an assumption). In that app, another route is a tool that works on selected text, such as Bilinguine.

Yes, once the languages are downloaded under Translation Languages in System Settings. The Control-click Translate item and Bilinguine both use those downloaded languages. Apple notes that offline translations may be less accurate than translations processed using Apple servers, and that Siri and Safari always process translations online.

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