DeepL Keyboard Shortcuts
DeepL's shortcuts are concentrated around its desktop app's standout feature — a global keyboard shortcut that translates whatever text is currently selected anywhere on your system, without needing to copy-paste into the DeepL window manually. Beyond that signature global shortcut, the rest of the bindings cover basic text-editing actions within the translation panes themselves, which behave like a simple text editor on both the source and target sides. That global double-copy trigger only works while the desktop app is running in the background, so quitting DeepL entirely (rather than just closing its window) silently disables the feature until you relaunch it. Formality settings, available for languages that distinguish formal and informal address (like German's Sie versus du), let you specify which register the translation should use, a linguistic nuance that simpler translation engines historically handled less consistently. DeepL Write, a separate but related product focused on improving the clarity and tone of text already written in one language rather than translating between languages, shares some of the same underlying neural language technology but serves a genuinely different writing-improvement use case.
Global Translate
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Translate selected text (system-wide) | Ctrl+C twice (configurable) | Cmd+C twice (configurable) | With the DeepL desktop app running, pressing the copy shortcut twice in quick succession on any selected text anywhere in the OS pops up a small translation window with the result, without needing to switch to DeepL's app window first. |
| Open DeepL app window | Custom global shortcut set in app settings | Custom global shortcut | Bringing the main DeepL desktop window into focus from anywhere is done via a user-configurable global shortcut, set during the app's initial setup or changeable later in preferences. |
| Translate an uploaded document | Upload document icon (no dedicated key) | — | Uploads a full document file (like a Word or PDF file) for translation while attempting to preserve its original formatting, rather than requiring the text to be manually copied into the translation panes first. |
Editor Panes
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Translate typed text | Auto-translates as you type, or Enter to force | Same | DeepL's web and app translation panes update the translated output continuously as you type in the source pane, with no dedicated key required to trigger translation, though pausing briefly lets the engine finish processing the current sentence. |
| Swap source and target languages | No default keyboard shortcut — click swap icon | Same | Swapping which language is the source and which is the target is done by clicking the swap arrows icon between the two panes, rather than a keyboard shortcut. |
| Copy translated text | Ctrl+C (with translation pane focused) | Cmd+C | Standard copy shortcut applies to the translated output pane just as it would to any selected text, letting you copy the result for pasting elsewhere. |
| Set translation formality level | Settings dropdown near output pane | — | Specifies whether a translation should use a formal or informal register for languages that distinguish the two (like German's Sie versus du), a linguistic nuance simpler translation engines have historically handled less consistently. |
| Clear source text field | Ctrl+A then Delete (in source pane) | Cmd+A then Delete | Selecting all text in the source pane and deleting it clears the field for a fresh translation, faster than manually dragging to select a long pasted block of text before removing it. |
| Paste text into source pane | Ctrl+V (source pane focused) | Cmd+V | Standard paste shortcut drops clipboard content directly into the source pane, immediately triggering translation to begin processing the pasted text without any additional action needed. |
Alternatives Glossary
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| View alternative word translations | Click a translated word/phrase | Same | Clicking on a specific word or phrase within the translated text reveals alternative translation options DeepL considered, letting you manually pick a different phrasing — this interaction is mouse-driven rather than keyboard-triggered. |
| Apply a custom glossary | No keyboard shortcut — select glossary from dropdown | Same | Switching to a custom glossary (ensuring specific terms always translate a particular way, useful for brand names or technical terminology) is selected from a dropdown menu, not triggered by a keyboard shortcut. |
| Hear pronunciation of translated text | Click speaker icon on output | — | Plays an audio pronunciation of the translated text, useful for confirming how a translated phrase actually sounds when learning or verifying pronunciation in an unfamiliar language. |
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the double-copy global translate shortcut actually work?
The DeepL desktop app runs a background listener for the system copy shortcut; when it detects the same copy action triggered twice in quick succession with text currently selected, it intercepts that as a signal to grab the selected text and show a translation popup near the cursor, rather than just performing a normal copy to clipboard — it's a clever reuse of an existing OS shortcut rather than an entirely new binding.
Does the global translate shortcut work in every application?
It works in most applications where text selection and OS-level copy commands function normally, which covers the vast majority of apps, though some specialized or sandboxed applications with restricted clipboard access can occasionally prevent DeepL's background listener from detecting the selection correctly.
Is there a way to translate without DeepL automatically guessing the source language?
Yes — the source language dropdown can be manually set rather than left on auto-detect, which matters for short or ambiguous text where automatic language detection might guess incorrectly, though setting this manually is a dropdown selection rather than a keyboard shortcut.
Can DeepL adjust translations for formal versus informal address?
Yes, for languages that distinguish formal and informal registers (such as German's Sie versus du), a formality setting lets you specify which register the translation should target, a nuance that simpler older translation engines have historically handled less consistently than DeepL's neural approach.
Can I translate a whole document file instead of pasting text manually?
Yes, DeepL supports uploading document files (including Word and PDF formats) for translation while attempting to preserve the original formatting, avoiding the need to manually copy and paste text out of the document into the translation panes first.
Is DeepL Write the same product as the translation tool?
No — they solve different problems. Write takes text you already wrote in one language and polishes its clarity, tone, and grammar without changing the language it's in, while the core DeepL product converts text from one language into another. They're built on overlapping neural technology under the hood, but you'd reach for Write to tighten up an English email and reach for regular DeepL to turn that same email into German.
Is DeepL free to use, or does it require a paid subscription?
DeepL offers a free tier with meaningful daily usage limits for both the web translator and desktop app, while a paid Pro subscription unlocks higher usage limits, additional formality controls, and API access for developers integrating translation into their own applications.
Does DeepL keep a history of past translations I can revisit?
The web and desktop apps keep a short recent-translation history accessible from a sidebar or history icon depending on version, letting you revisit a handful of recently translated passages without retyping them, though this history is not intended as a permanent, searchable archive the way a dedicated notes app would be.