How to Summarize Text on a Mac in 2026: Pages, Emails and PDFs

To summarize text on a Mac, select it, Control-click, choose Writing Tools > Show Writing Tools, then click Summarize or Key Points. For a whole web page, open the Page menu in Safari's address field and choose Summarize. Both need Apple Intelligence on macOS 27. Without it, the older Summarize service under Services still works on selected text.

Long reading lands at the worst moments: a pre-read ten minutes before a call, a vendor report you promised to look at, a thread that grew while you were out. Below, you'll find the right tool for every kind of text on a Mac, from one paragraph of an article to a full PDF, then covers a missing Summarize option and how to read a summary without being misled by it.

What you need before Apple's summaries appear

Apple's summaries run on Apple Intelligence, which Apple lists for Macs with M1 or newer Apple chips running macOS 27. Your Mac's language and Siri's language have to match one of the supported languages, which include English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, among others. Apple also notes that Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 isn't offered in every region and that usage limits may apply.

If your Mac doesn't qualify, the Summarize service further down is your tool. It is older and plainer, but it runs on any Mac that still lists it.

How to summarize any text with Writing Tools on a Mac

Writing Tools summarizes whatever text you select, in most apps where you can type, including third-party apps and websites, according to Apple's Writing Tools guide. It is the method I reach for first because it works on a single section, not just a whole page.

1. Highlight the passage to shorten. Drag across it, or click inside it and press Command-A to take everything.
2. Control-click the selection (a two-finger click works too).
3. Choose Writing Tools, then Show Writing Tools.
4. Click Summarize for a short paragraph, or Key Points for the main points only.
5. Read the result, copy what you need, then click Done.

Summarize or Key Points: which to pick

Summarize gives you a short paragraph, which is what I paste into a reply when someone asks "what did the report say?" Key Points keeps only the most important points, per Apple's guide, so it suits a document you'll come back to and want to scan. When I'm prepping for a call, I run Key Points on the pre-read and keep that list open beside the meeting window.

How to summarize just one section of an article

To summarize an article section rather than the whole page, select only that section before you open Writing Tools. Start at its heading and drag to the end of its last paragraph. The summary then covers that part alone, which matters when an article mixes background you know with the one part you came for. Last week I did exactly that with the pricing section of a long product announcement and ignored the rest.

How to summarize a web page in Safari

Safari on macOS 27 can summarize a whole article from the address field, per Apple's Safari guide. Apple says the option shows only when the website supports it, so don't be surprised when it's missing on some pages.

1. Open the page in Safari.
2. Click the Page menu button in the Smart Search field (the address bar).
3. Choose Summarize.

Reader view helps with long pieces. Choose Show Reader from the same Page menu, or press Shift-Command-R (Safari's shortcut list calls it Open Reader). Apple says longer articles in Reader show a table of contents and a summary, so you get an outline of the piece and its gist on one screen. Press Esc to leave Reader.

How to summarize an email or a long thread in Mail

Apple Mail on macOS 27 has its own Summarize button, and on a thread it covers the whole conversation, as Apple's Mail help page explains.

1. In Mail, click the email you want condensed.
2. Scroll up to the start of the message.
3. Click Summarize. The summary appears above the email.

Unread messages also get a brief summary in the inbox list in place of their opening words. If you'd rather see the opening lines, choose Mail > Settings, click Viewing and turn off Summarize Message Previews. I keep previews on, but I still open anything from a client before replying, because a one-line preview can't tell you the tone. For more on what Apple Intelligence does inside Mail, see Apple Mail AI in 2026.

How to summarize a PDF on a Mac

The Mac has no single button that summarizes a PDF file, so you summarize its text. Open the PDF in Preview, highlight the pages or passages you need (press Command-A for all of it, if the PDF has real text rather than a scanned image), then Control-click and look for Writing Tools.

If Writing Tools doesn't appear on the selection, copy the text with Command-C, paste it into a new note in Notes or a TextEdit document, select it there and run Writing Tools. The other route is Services > Summarize, covered next, which works on selected text in many apps.

Two things to check with PDFs. A scanned PDF is a picture of text, so there may be nothing to select; Preview can't summarize what it can't read as text. And on a long report, I summarize chapter by chapter. When a supplier sent me a long security review, a summary of each section told me far more than one summary of the whole file, which flattened the part I needed into half a sentence.

How to use the Summarize service without Apple Intelligence

The Summarize service is an old macOS tool that shortens selected text by keeping some of its sentences or paragraphs and dropping the rest. It doesn't rewrite anything, and it doesn't need Apple Intelligence. Tom's Guide found it still available on macOS Tahoe (macOS 26). It is off by default, so turn it on first. Apple documents where the Services list lives in its Mac help page on services.

1. In System Settings, choose Keyboard from the sidebar.
2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts, then click Services in the sidebar.
3. Open the Text group and select Summarize. Click Done.
4. Select text in any app, then choose the app's name in the menu bar > Services > Summarize (or Control-click the selection and choose Services there).
5. In the Summary window, drag the slider to keep more or less of the text.

The window also lets you summarize by Sentences or by Paragraphs, as Other World Computing's walkthrough describes. The author there prefers Paragraphs, and so do I: whole paragraphs keep their own context. Apple notes that a service appears in an app's Services menu only when it's relevant to the app or the task, so if Summarize is missing in one app, try it in TextEdit.

I use the service when I want the author's own words rather than a paraphrase, such as a policy or a contract clause, where a rewritten sentence could change the meaning.

How to build a one-click summary with Shortcuts

If you summarize the same kind of text often, the Shortcuts app on macOS 27 can do it with the Use Model action, which sends a prompt to an Apple Intelligence model, per Apple's Shortcuts guide. The On-Device model handles simple requests without a network connection; Cloud and Cloud Pro run on Apple's Private Cloud Compute for longer or harder ones.

1. Open Shortcuts and click the Create Shortcut button in the toolbar.
2. Add Get Clipboard so the shortcut works on whatever you last copied.
3. Search for Use Model, double-click it and choose a model, such as On-Device.
4. In the prompt field, write the instruction and insert the clipboard as the text to work on, for example "Summarize this in three bullet points, keeping every date and amount."
5. Add Show Result after it, so the summary appears on screen when the shortcut runs.
6. Click the Play button to test it.

The prompt is where this beats the built-in buttons. Mine for meeting pre-reads asks for decisions needed, open questions and numbers, in that order, because those are the three things I'd otherwise hunt for during the call.

Why isn't Summarize showing on my Mac?

When Summarize is missing, the cause is usually Apple Intelligence availability, the page you're on, or a service that was never switched on. Start at the top of this list:

• Check the Mac and the language. Apple Intelligence needs an M1 Mac or later on macOS 27, and your Mac and Siri languages must be the same supported language (Apple's requirements).
• Check the region. Apple says Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 isn't available in every region.
• In Safari, check the page. Summarize appears only when the website supports it. Try Reader with Shift-Command-R, or select the text and use Writing Tools.
• Check you selected text. Writing Tools works on a selection; with nothing selected there's nothing to summarize.
• For the Services menu, check the setting. Summarize is off until you select it in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.
• Check for a usage limit. Apple says usage limits may apply to Apple Intelligence on macOS 27, so heavy use can run into one.

How to read a summary without getting caught out

A summary is a fast first read, not a replacement for the source when the stakes are real. A few habits keep it useful:

• Check every number against the original. Dates, prices and percentages are what I verify before I repeat a summary to anyone.
• Watch for what's missing. Summaries drop caveats first. When a summary says a plan "includes" something, I search the source for "except" and "only".
• Summarize the part you need. A section summary beats a whole-document summary for a question about one section.
• Say it's a summary. When I forward a summary to my team, I label it and link the source, so nobody quotes it as the author's words.

For audio and video, the starting point is a transcript rather than a summary; see pulling the transcript from a YouTube video, and for calls, AI note-taking tools compared.