Pleco does not have a Mac app. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, and as of November 2026 its own site lists nothing else. There are ways to get at it from a Mac, and there are other tools for looking up Chinese on the screen you are already reading.
There is no native Pleco for Mac. Pleco's own site lists iPhone, iPad and Android, and says nothing about Mac or Windows. This is as of November 2026.
It is not for lack of asking. The Pleco forum has a long thread called "Pleco for Mac Update?" and the developer has answered in it several times this year. A Mac version is planned, not shipped, and has no date.
These are quotes from page 4 of that thread, posted by the staff account mikelove. On January 31, 2026 that account said the team had been planning to release a Mac beta with its "big UI simplification revamp". The same post floated a different idea, to "release a meh Mac version and charge for it and make it good if people pay for it".
On March 14, 2026 the same account said the team "didn't want to even launch a beta of it on Mac until it was in a relatively final/stable state on iOS", and that once iOS reaches that point, "a Mac release is pretty easy." Later replies in the thread, up to May 2, 2026, are about Apple's Liquid Glass design and what it forces on the iOS app. The latest posts in the thread give no release date.
So the Mac version waits on the iOS redesign. Check the thread before you plan around any of this, because it can change in a week.
The one workaround that really uses Pleco itself is iPhone Mirroring. Your iPhone stays locked nearby and its screen appears in a window on the Mac, which you control with your own keyboard and trackpad. It needs macOS Sequoia 15 or later, iOS 18 or later and the same Apple Account on both. Apple says it is currently unavailable in the European Union, so if you live there, skip this section.
Mirroring does not make Pleco read your Mac. It gives you Pleco on a Mac-sized window. You type a word in, you get the entry. Copying from a PDF on the Mac into Pleco still goes through Universal Clipboard, which Apple describes as copy on the iPhone, paste on the Mac, within about 10 metres and for a short time after you copy. Apple's page says it is best for small amounts of text, which suits a single word or sentence.
The other idea people suggest is running the iPhone app natively on an Apple Silicon Mac. That only works when the developer opts in on the App Store. Pleco Chinese Dictionary's US App Store listing, checked in November 2026, lists iPhone, iPad and iPod touch only in its compatibility section, with no Mac line. So today that route is closed for Pleco.
Wenlin is the long-running desktop option. Its site says it runs on Mac and Windows, with large Chinese-English dictionaries, a text editor, flashcards, recorded pronunciation and handwriting recognition. It is paid software, and no price shows on its front page, so check the store.
MDBG is the free one. It is a website, so it works in any browser on a Mac. You can search by pinyin, characters or radical, and it has handwriting input and text annotation. Its entries come from CC-CEDICT, which is a community dictionary, so expect a different feel from Pleco's licensed dictionaries.
Neither gives you Pleco's add-on dictionaries or its screen reader. That is the loss when you move to a Mac, and no workaround fully replaces it.
LeafyApp is not a Pleco replacement. It has no handwriting input, no stroke order and no stack of licensed dictionaries. If you use Pleco for any of those, keep Pleco.
What it does is a different job. Press ⌥A in any app and drag a box over Chinese text. macOS text recognition reads that patch of screen, so it works on a scanned PDF, a screenshot, a game, a video subtitle or an app that will not let you select text. An AI then explains the word for the sense that sentence is using, and the word is saved with its sentence, source and date.
Classical Chinese is on the supported list, which matters because many tools treat it as an afterthought. Saved words can be searched by pinyin, so you can type "shu" and find a character you only remember by sound. When you want cards, words go to Anki with a preview, or out as CSV, Excel, JSON or PDF.
For looking up an unknown word in a textbook PDF or a Chinese show's subtitles, box it with ⌥A and keep reading. For checking a character's strokes or writing one by hand, use Pleco on the phone or MDBG in the browser. For a serious desktop dictionary with a licence behind it, look at Wenlin.
If you save words as you read, the library on your Mac builds a record of what you actually met. It stays on the Mac. The picture is read there and thrown away, and only the word and its sentence go out so the AI can explain it, with nothing attached that says who you are. The privacy page has the details. For the card side, see sentence mining on a Mac.
Is there a Pleco app for Mac?
No. Pleco lists iPhone, iPad and Android only, and its staff said in 2026 that a Mac release will follow the iOS redesign. As of November 2026 there is no release date.
Can I run Pleco on a Mac with Apple Silicon?
Not as a Mac app. Pleco's US App Store listing shows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch compatibility only, with no Mac option. You can use it through iPhone Mirroring (macOS Sequoia 15 and iOS 18 or later, not available in the EU).
What is the best Pleco alternative for Mac?
It depends what you need. Wenlin is a paid desktop dictionary for Mac, MDBG is a free website, and LeafyApp looks up Chinese text anywhere on screen. None of them copy Pleco's handwriting input or licensed dictionaries.
Is there a Pleco desktop version?
Not yet. Pleco's developer has described a Mac version as planned but waiting on the iOS interface redesign. The forum thread "Pleco for Mac Update?" is the place to check for news.
What is a good Chinese dictionary for Mac?
For a desktop dictionary, Wenlin runs on Mac and MDBG works in a browser. To look up Chinese you cannot select, such as images, subtitles or scanned PDFs, looking up a word on your Mac with LeafyApp's ⌥A box covers that case.
Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.
Also worth a look: sentence mining on a Mac, copying text you cannot select, making Anki cards on a Mac, or Japanese OCR on a Mac.
Pleco, Wenlin and MDBG are trademarks of their respective owners. LeafyApp is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, and their names are used here only to describe compatibility and for comparison.