translate button on safari mac

How-To Geek

How to translate web pages in safari on mac.

Have you landed on a French or Spanish website? Translate it to English with the press of a button!

Often find yourself on websites with text in a foreign language? If you use Safari, there's no need to go to Google Translate. You can translate web pages between seven languages right in Safari on a Mac.

Starting with Safari 14.0, Apple included a translation feature directly in the browser. As of this writing, the feature is in beta, but fully functional. If your Mac is running the latest version of macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur , or newer, you can access the translation feature.

The translation functionality works between the following languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

By default, you can translate any of the above languages to English. You can also add more languages to the mix (we'll talk more about that below).

To get started, open a web page in one of the supported languages. Safari will automatically recognize that language, and you'll see "Translation Available" in the URL bar, along with a Translation button; click it.

If this is the first time you've used the feature, a pop-up will appear. Click "Enable Translation" to turn on the feature.

In the translation menu, select "Translate to English."

The text on the page will instantly convert to English, as shown in the image below. The Translation button will also turn blue.

To disable the Translation feature and return to the original language, click the Translation button again, and then select "View Original."

As we mentioned above, you can also translate to languages other than English. To do so, click the Translation button, and then select "Preferred Languages."

This opens the "Language & Region" menu in System Preferences. Here, click the plus sign (+) to add a new preferred language. You can add multiple languages here while continuing to use English as the default language across your Mac.

In the pop-up, select the languages you want to add, and then click "Add."

System Preferences will ask if you want to make this your default language. Choose the previous default language if you want it to remain the status quo.

Now that you've added a new preferred language, you'll see the translation button even when you visit web pages that are in English.

The translation process for a preferred language is the same: click the Translation button in the URL bar, and then select "Translate to [the language you selected]."

Again, you can view the original at any time by simply clicking "View Original" in the Translation menu.

If you're traveling to a new country, you can also use the built-in Translate app on your iPhone or iPad to quickly translate speech between multiple languages.

Related: How to Use the Apple Translate App on iPhone

macOS Big Sur

Macos big sur: how to translate websites with safari.

Safari 14 which is the default browser with macOS Big Sur comes with quite a few improvements. And one of the brand new features (although in beta) is seamless translation of websites. Read along for how to natively translate websites with Safari on Mac.

If you’re a regular Safari user, you’re probably used to using Google Translate or another website or app to convert text. Now Safari has built-in translation that’s really fast to use on Mac .

Now with Safari 14 and macOS Big Sur, the Translate beta is available for a faster way to understand websites that are written in languages you don’t speak/read. The Translate beta is also available for Safari on iPhone and iPad .

How to translate websites with Safari with macOS Big Sur

Running Safari 14 on macOS Big Sur, open a website in another language
When translation is available, look for the Translate icon on the right side of the url/search bar
Click “Translate to _________” which will be your default language for your Mac
Click the icon again to revert the webpage to the original language
There’s also a button (Preferred Languages) to take you System Preferences > Language and Region
Keep in mind the Translate button won’t appear when it’s unavailable

Here’s how the process looks:

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Whether you’re learning a new language or frequently visit sites that display in another dialect, you can translate a web page in Safari on Mac. Without a third-party tool, you can take advantage of Safari’s built-in translation feature. Read along to find out how.

How to translate a web page language in Safari on Mac

How to translate a portion of a web page on mac, how to change your languages translation settings on mac, how to help apple improve safari translations.

If you visit another web page of the same site in the same tab, that page will be automatically translated as well. Safari will stop translating automatically if the page is not in the same original language or on a different domain.

Safari makes it simple to translate almost any web page in its entirety.

Maybe it’s not an entire web page you want to translate but a certain part. It might be a sentence or a paragraph. You can do this using Live Text and then take advantage of the additional options you have.

Select the text you want to translate by dragging your cursor through it to highlight it.

You can decide the availability of languages when you use Safari’s translation feature . Here’s how.

Open your System Settings, go to General, and pick Language & Region

At the top of the window, you’ll see Preferred Languages listing those you have available for translation.

To add a language, tap on add in system settings

You’ll see a message asking if you want to change your primary language to the one you want to add. Choose the option you want, and you’ll then see the new language displayed in your Preferred Languages list.

When you finish, close the System Settings. You should then see your updated languages available when you select the Translate icon in Safari.

If you translate a page and believe the translation may be inaccurate, you can let Apple know. This helps Apple improve translations moving forward.

You’ll see a message pop-up letting you know that Apple will store and use the web page address contents to improve translations. Pick Report to send the information to Apple.

Don’t let language barriers stop you!

With the built-in translation feature in Safari on Mac, you don’t have to use a third-party translator or bypass a potentially great web page because it’s in a different language.

Have you used translation in Safari on Mac yet? What are your thoughts on the feature? Let us know!

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Sandy relishes crafting how-tos, listicles, and explainers, empowering others to unlock the full potential of their Apple devices. She joined iGeeksBlog in 2023, and her decade-long experience in tech writing shines through, starting with Apple products in 2015 and further enriched by collaborations with prestigious publications like Lifewire, How-To Geek, Digital Trends, iDownloadBlog, MakeUseOf, groovyPost, and AppleToolbox.

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Translate text on Mac

When you work in documents, emails, or messages, view photos or images, or browse webpages, you can select text to translate into supported languages , and hear how it sounds when spoken.

Translate text

You can easily translate text in different apps on Mac, including some third-party apps. You can also use Live Text to translate text in an image.

Select the text you want to translate.

Control-click the selected text, then choose Translate.

From the language pop-up menus, choose the language of the text you’re translating (if necessary) and the language you want to translate it into.

If you don’t designate a language, your Mac translates into your preferred language (if supported) or into a default language for your region.

Replace text with a translation

When writing on your Mac, you can replace what you’ve written with a translation.

Select the text you want to replace with a translation.

Click Replace with Translation to insert the translation and replace the original text.

Download languages for offline translation

You can download languages to translate when offline. Offline translations may be less accurate than translations processed using Apple servers. Siri and Safari always process translations online.