A translator in your menu bar — no browser tab, no API key.
Paste, pick your languages, press Translate (or ⌘/Ctrl+Enter). 18 languages, automatic source detection and a swap button, right where you’re already working. Works out of the box with no API key, and takes your own DeepL key if you want better quality.
Already have Toolbox? Open this widget
Translate without leaving what you’re doing.
Open the popover from your menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows), paste the text, and press Translate — or hit ⌘/Ctrl+Enter. Translation is deliberately explicit rather than as-you-type, so half-written sentences don’t get sent anywhere and you decide when a request happens.
Leave the source language on Detect and it works out what you pasted; the result tells you which language it read. The ⇄ swap button flips source and target for the reply you’re about to write, your last language pair and text are remembered for next time, and Copy puts the result on your clipboard. Pick the same language on both sides and it says so instead of failing silently.
- Explicit Translate button + ⌘/Ctrl+Enter shortcut
- Automatic source detection, with the detected language shown
- ⇄ swap languages · remembers your last pair · copy the result
- 18 curated languages, from Spanish and German to Japanese and Arabic
Free by default. Better if you already pay for DeepL.
Most desktop translators ask for an API key before they do anything. This one ships with MyMemory, a public translation API that needs no key and no account, so it works the minute you install it.
If you want higher quality, open the widget’s settings and paste your own DeepL Auth Key (the free API tier works). It’s stored locally on your machine, in a password field, and it’s yours — usage is billed by DeepL under your key, not through us. With DeepL, source-language detection is done by DeepL itself instead of the widget’s heuristic. The same settings panel lets you force one engine or the other, and set the target language you translate into most.
- MyMemory by default — no key, no account, no sign-up
- Optional DeepL with your own key, stored locally
- Choose the engine explicitly, or let it use DeepL whenever a key exists
- Set your default target language once
Being straight about it: your text goes to a translation service.
Several Toolbox widgets run fully offline. This one can’t: machine translation happens on someone’s servers, so when you press Translate the text you typed is sent to the engine you chose — MyMemory, or DeepL if you configured your key. Nothing passes through Webstarted, and the widget itself stores only your last text and language pair, locally, so they’re there when you come back.
Practical rule, the same one that applies to any online translator: it’s great for an email, a support reply or a paragraph of documentation — not for passwords, keys, or a contract under NDA. And the widget’s AI/MCP action is off by default, precisely because it would send text to an external API; you opt in if you want an assistant to use it.
- Requires an internet connection — it is not an offline translator
- Text goes only to the engine you selected · nothing via Webstarted
- Your DeepL key never leaves your machine except to call DeepL
- “Machine translation” is labelled in the widget — treat results accordingly
Installed from the catalog, in one click.
Translator isn’t bundled into the app — it’s a widget in the Webstarted Toolbox catalog. Download Toolbox, open the catalog tab (🧰), press the “+” next to Translator, and it lands in your Productivity tab. No reinstall, no app update. Here are a few of its neighbors:
Questions, answered.
Do I need an API key?
No. Out of the box it translates through MyMemory, which needs no key and no account — install the widget and it works. A key is only for the optional upgrade: paste your own DeepL Auth Key in the widget’s settings and it will use DeepL instead, for better quality and real source-language detection.
Does it work offline?
No — and we’d rather say so plainly. Translation happens on an external service (MyMemory by default, or DeepL with your key), so the widget needs an internet connection. Unlike the offline widgets in Toolbox, your text does leave your machine when you press Translate.
Where does my text go?
To the translation engine you selected, and nowhere else: MyMemory’s public API, or DeepL’s API if you configured your key. Nothing is routed through Webstarted servers and nothing is stored by the widget beyond the last text you typed, which is kept locally so it’s still there next time you open the popover. Don’t paste secrets, credentials or confidential contracts into any machine-translation service, this one included.
Which languages does it support?
Eighteen: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Swedish and Indonesian. You can also leave the source on “Detect” and let it work out what you pasted.
Is it free?
Yes. Webstarted Toolbox is free and needs no account, and Translator is a free widget in its catalog. The default MyMemory engine is free too; DeepL is optional and billed by DeepL under your own key, not by us.
Get Webstarted Toolbox
Free to use. Download the app, then add Translator from the catalog in one click. macOS 12+ and Windows 10+.
One icon, many small tools
This is just one of the widgets in Webstarted Toolbox. Here are the rest: