Can I set a default target language?

You choose the target language when you run the Translate transform, so you can translate into whatever language each task needs.

Does this replace a translation website?

For most everyday tasks, yes — it keeps the translation on your clipboard so you never switch to a browser tab. For high-stakes copy, have a fluent human review the output.

ClipHistory is a one-time $19.99 purchase with a 12-month license and no auto-renewal. Translation uses your own AI provider key, billed by that provider.

Is my text sent to ClipHistory's servers?

No. There are none. The text goes only to the AI provider you configured, under your own API key.

Paste and Translate on Mac in One Step

"Paste and translate" is the workflow you actually want: take whatever you copied and drop it into your document already translated. The usual version involves a translation website and a lot of back-and-forth. With a clipboard manager that has AI transforms, the translate step lives on the clipboard itself, so paste and translate become nearly the same action.

The flow

ClipHistory holds your recent clips and can transform any of them with AI.

Copy the source text from any app.
Press Cmd+Shift+V to open ClipHistory.
Select the clip and run the Translate transform; set your target language.
Paste — the clipboard now holds the translated text.

You copied, you translated, you pasted. No browser tab in the middle.

Why "on the clipboard" beats "in a tab"

A translation website forces a detour: switch apps, paste, wait, copy, switch back. Translating on the clipboard removes every one of those steps except the ones you'd do anyway (copy and paste). And because the result lands back on your clipboard, the next paste is the translation.

You also keep both versions in your history — the original and the translation — so you can re-check or re-run if needed.

Your provider, your key, your model

Translate runs through one of five provider options: Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom endpoint, using your own API key. That means:

You pay the provider's rate directly — no subscription markup.
You choose the model that handles your language pair best.
You can switch providers any time a better model appears.

Handle messy source text

PDF and web copies often carry broken line breaks and stray characters that produce broken translations. Run Clean first to normalize the text, then Translate. It's one extra shortcut and it noticeably improves the result.

Reuse frequent translations

If you translate the same phrase often — a greeting, a standard reply, a product description — save the translation as a snippet so you can paste it instantly without re-running the transform. Snippets cost nothing per use. You can also pin a translated clip; pinned clips are unlimited and survive past the rolling 150-clip history.

Two directions, one shortcut

"Paste and translate" runs both ways, and the flow is identical:

Reading inbound text. A customer writes in Spanish, a vendor sends a German spec, a forum post is in Japanese. Copy it, Translate into your language, read it in place.
Writing outbound text. Draft your reply in the language you think in, copy it, Translate into the recipient's language, and paste it into the reply box.

You don't learn two workflows — it's the same copy, Cmd+Shift+V, Translate, paste in either direction.

Where it fits in real work

This shines in the small, frequent moments rather than big translation projects:

Support and sales. Answer a non-native-language ticket without leaving your helpdesk.
Documentation. Read foreign-language docs or error messages while you work.
Quick comprehension. Paste a chunk of foreign text just to understand what it says, then move on.

Because the original and the translation both stay in your clip history, you can glance back at the source if a translated phrase reads oddly.

Chain it with other transforms

Translate composes with the other transforms when a task needs more than one step:

Clean, then Translate for messy PDF or web text, so artifacts don't carry into the translation.
Rewrite, then Translate when you want a polished draft delivered in another language — fix grammar and flow first, then convert.
Translate, then Summarize to get the gist of a long foreign-language document in your own language.

Each step is one shortcut, and the result of one lands on the clipboard ready for the next.

Privacy

ClipHistory runs locally with no cloud and no account. The only data that leaves your Mac is the text you send through the Translate transform, going straight to your chosen provider under your own key. You decide what to send — text you never run through a transform never leaves your machine at all.

Expectations

AI translation is reliable for general prose and quick comprehension. For high-stakes copy — contracts, marketing, anything where nuance matters — treat it as a fast draft and have a fluent speaker review it.

Summary

Paste and translate on Mac doesn't need a website. Copy, Cmd+Shift+V, Translate, paste — one shortcut, the model you choose, your key, your text staying local except for the single transform request.

Ready to put AI to work on your clipboard? Get ClipHistory for macOS — $19.99 (one-time payment, 12-month license, no auto-renewal). Signed and notarized by Apple, runs on Apple Silicon and Intel, macOS 12+.