Grasp for Mac Help
Look up a word, understand a sentence, or read text in a selected area of your screen.
Connect your account
- Open Grasp → Preferences → Account and choose Sign in.
- Sign in to Grasp in your browser, approve this Mac, then choose Open Grasp when prompted.
- Return to Account and check your name and allowance. Your allowance is counted across devices on the same Grasp account.
If the browser flow is interrupted, choose Cancel in the app and start again. A browser success page alone does not confirm that the app received the callback.
The Mac App Store edition is a free companion for your Grasp account. It does not offer purchases inside the app.
Look up text
| Action | Default gesture |
|---|---|
| Word under the pointer | Point at a word and tap Option (⌥). |
| Selected text | Select text in another app, then press Option+S (⌥S). |
| Text in an image or area | Press Option+A (⌥A), release the keys, then drag a rectangle. Release the mouse to read the area. |
| Save a word | Choose Save to memo, or press Option+Command+S (⌥⌘S) while its answer is open. |
| Cancel area selection | Press Escape. |
Holding Option also opens area selection. If you keep Option held while dragging, release the mouse to finish the rectangle. Gesture settings may change how a tap is recognized.
Choose Deeper in an answer for more explanation. Use its follow-up field to ask about the same text. Looking up different text starts a separate conversation.
Set up macOS permissions
Grasp uses Accessibility for cross-app text access and keyboard interaction. Area capture and OCR need Screen & System Audio Recording permission (called Screen Recording on some macOS versions). Grasp does not capture microphone or system audio.
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and grant the permissions requested by the copy of Grasp you are running.
- Fully quit Grasp and reopen it after changing screen-recording permission.
- Check the permission status in Grasp Preferences → Settings before retrying.
If macOS still requests permission, check whether you have another copy of Grasp installed. A permission granted to a different copy or signature may not apply to the running app.
Screenshots and OCR processing stay on your Mac. In Hybrid mode, recognized text and its context are sent to Grasp for a cloud answer. On-device only mode does not send lookup text for cloud answers. See the privacy policy.
The current Mac App Store candidate asks before the first cloud lookup. Choose Allow cloud AI for cloud answers, or Use on-device only for local lookup. You can change this in Preferences → Settings → Cloud AI. Signing in and saved-term sync are separate from this choice.
Troubleshoot an answer
- Signed out or authentication failed: open Preferences → Account and reconnect if needed. Then retry the lookup.
- Allowance exhausted: the cloud answer cannot run until your account has available allowance. Local features remain available.
- No text found: select visible text, or draw a tighter area around clear text. An empty image or an inaccessible window cannot produce a lookup.
- No response from the server: check your connection and retry once. If it persists, send the error text and app version to support.
- Both Mac and Chrome respond: enable Prefer Grasp for Mac in the extension, or disable the extension while testing Mac. That setting reserves extension gestures; it does not detect whether the Mac app is running.
Saved terms and account access
Saved terms sync within your account. Lookup history stays on this Mac. Signing out does not delete your Grasp account. You can revoke a connected Mac from your website profile.
Contact support
Email [email protected]. Include your macOS version, Grasp version, steps to reproduce, and the error message. Do not send passwords, login tokens, or screenshots containing private information.