Does it translate text from any app?

Yes. ClipHistory works on whatever you copy, so it translates text from any application: mail, PDFs, editors, chat. No plugin or website support is required.

Where does my text go when I translate it?

Only to the AI provider you connect with your own API key. Everything else stays local on your Mac, with no cloud and no account.

Is there a per-translation charge from ClipHistory?

No. ClipHistory is a one-time $19.99 purchase. Translation usage is billed by your own AI provider at their rate.

Which languages are supported?

Translation quality depends on the AI model you choose, not on ClipHistory. Common language pairs work well across all five supported providers.

Translate Text Anywhere on Your Mac

Most translation happens in a browser tab you keep open all day. The problem is the friction: copy here, switch tabs, paste, copy the result, switch back. If you translate often, that adds up. ClipHistory lets you translate copied text from any application using a keyboard shortcut, with the result staying on your Mac.

Translate from the clipboard

ClipHistory sits on your clipboard. Anything you copy is available through the global shortcut Cmd+Shift+V, and any clip can be run through an AI transform, including Translate.

The flow looks like this:

Copy text in any app: an email, a PDF, a chat message, a code comment.
Press Cmd+Shift+V to open ClipHistory.
Select the clip and choose Translate.
Paste the translated text back where you need it.

Because it works on whatever is on your clipboard, it works anywhere: there is no app that needs a plugin, and no website that needs to support it.

Your key, your provider, your cost

Translation runs through the AI provider you connect with your own API key. ClipHistory supports five:

Anthropic
OpenAI
DeepSeek
Google
A custom endpoint

There is no hosted translation service in the middle and no per-translation fee from ClipHistory. You pay your provider for the tokens you use, at their rate. If you already hold an API key, you are ready to go.

Choosing a model for translation

Quality varies by model and language pair. For common pairs most current models do well; for rarer languages or specialized vocabulary, a larger model is worth the slightly higher cost. Since you pick the model, you can adjust per situation.

Privacy: nothing leaves except the request you make

ClipHistory keeps everything local. There is no cloud sync and no account. The only data that leaves your Mac is the specific clip you choose to translate, sent to your configured provider. Clips you never translate are never transmitted.

This is the difference that matters when the text is a contract clause, an internal memo, or a customer message: you decide, per clip, what gets sent.

Practical tips

Keep the source pinned

ClipHistory holds 150 unpinned clips plus unlimited pinned ones. Pin the original if you need to compare against the translation or translate it into several languages in a row.

Chain transforms

You can follow a translation with Clean to tidy spacing, or Summarize if you want the gist of a long foreign-language document rather than a full translation.

Re-translate to refine

The translated text is a normal clip. If a phrase reads awkwardly, run Translate again or switch models and compare.

Two directions, same tool

Translation goes both ways, and ClipHistory handles both from the same place:

Understanding incoming text

A supplier emails you in German, a code comment is in Japanese, a forum answer is in Portuguese. Copy it, Translate, and read it in your language. Because the result is a clip, you can paste it into your notes for later.

Producing outgoing text

You need to reply in Spanish but think in English. Write the reply in English, copy it, Translate to Spanish, and paste. Follow with Clean to fix any spacing, and you have a tidy message without a separate translation site.

Handling long documents

For a long foreign-language document, you have two clipboard moves. Translate the whole thing if you need the full text, or Summarize first to get the gist and decide whether a full translation is worth it. Summarizing then translating the summary is often cheaper than translating the entire document, since you send fewer tokens to your provider.

Why local matters for translation

Translation tools are a classic privacy leak: people paste contracts, medical text, and internal strategy into free web translators without thinking about where it goes. ClipHistory inverts that. Nothing is sent until you press the transform, and even then it goes only to the provider whose key you configured, not to an opaque third party. For regulated or confidential text, that single-hop, you-control-it path is the difference that lets you use AI translation at all.

When this beats a browser tab

A dedicated browser translator is fine for the occasional long passage. ClipHistory wins for the steady stream of short translations that happen across many apps: a line in an email client, a string in your editor, a message in a chat app. Keeping the translation on the clipboard means it is always one shortcut away, regardless of where the text came from.

For anyone who works across languages every day on a Mac, having translate available from the same place you already manage your clips removes a small but constant tax on your attention. ClipHistory is a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, runs on macOS 12 or later, and is signed and notarized by Apple.

Ready to put AI one keystroke away? Get ClipHistory for macOS for a one-time $19.99 (12-month license, no auto-renewal). Signed and notarized by Apple, universal binary, everything stays on your Mac.