Apple Writing Tools on a Mac take text you already selected and proofread it, rewrite the tone, or summarize it. You do not install a separate app, and you do not bring an API key. Summon is the extra step when that menu is not the command you wanted.
How do you use Apple Writing Tools on a Mac?
Select the text, right-click, and choose Writing Tools. PCMag’s guide, updated January 1, 2025 and checked October 27, 2026, puts Proofread, Rewrite, and the summary options in that menu. On a Mac you can also open it from the toolbar in Notes and Pages, which is how MacRumors described it on September 24, 2024. The same check found that description still on the page.
The feature is system-wide on a Mac that supports Apple Intelligence, including third-party apps. PCMag’s guide says that means an M-series Mac on macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later. Apple’s Mac User Guide, checked the same day, still lists Writing Tools and limits Apple Intelligence to specific languages and regions.
What can Apple Writing Tools do?
Proofread checks spelling, grammar, and word choice. Rewrite can restyle the selection as Friendly, Professional, or Concise. Summary, Key Points, List, and Table shorten or reformat it. MacRumors and PCMag agree on that list.
They disagree on what happens next. MacRumors described one rewritten block you accept or discard. PCMag’s later guide says you can step through each change. Use the review controls your Mac actually shows.
You still cannot add an action of your own. The list is Apple’s. PCMag’s January 2025 update also describes a ChatGPT compose box from macOS Sequoia 15.2. Apple’s October 2026 guide does not spell that menu out, so confirm it on your Mac before you rely on it.
When are Apple Writing Tools not enough?
When the command is one you wrote, not Friendly, Professional, or Concise. A support reply in your voice, a meeting note in a fixed shape, or a follow-up (“shorter, then warmer”) is outside that menu.
Language and region gates are real. If your Mac is outside the set Apple lists, Writing Tools are not there. Summon’s limit is different: the model you connected has to accept the text.
Summon after the system pass
Leave Writing Tools on for the proofread. Use Summon when you want a command you named: select the text, press ⌘K, run it, follow up in the panel, and insert the result. The command library is the list Writing Tools does not have.
Summon needs Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later, and a key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or xAI. The text goes to that provider. It does not stay on the Mac. If the text cannot leave the machine, use Writing Tools. What Summon stores is in the privacy policy.
Apple Writing Tools vs. Summon
| Apple Writing Tools | Summon | |
|---|---|---|
| How you use it | Select text, right-click, choose Writing Tools | Select text, press ⌘K, follow up, insert the result |
| What it can do | Proofread, Rewrite (Friendly, Professional, Concise), Summary, Key Points, List, Table | A preset or a command you wrote, plus a follow-up |
| Models | Apple Intelligence. A ChatGPT compose option is described in PCMag’s 2025 guide | Your key: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or xAI |
| Your own prompts | No | Yes, plus the command library |
| Offline | Some Apple Intelligence features use servers and have daily limits, per Apple’s guide | No. Every command calls a provider |
| Price | Included with macOS on a supported Mac | Weekly $1.99, yearly $29.99, or lifetime $79.99, plus tokens. 72-hour trial on weekly and yearly |
Writing Tools win on price and on keeping a proofread inside the system. Summon wins when the command has to be yours.
Do you still need a writing app on macOS?
Not for a proofread, a tone pass, or a summary. For a command you will run again, yes. Summon’s plans are the app, not the tokens.
Which one should you use?
Use Writing Tools when Proofread, Rewrite, or Summary is the job, and the text should stay with Apple.
Use Summon when it is not. Other Mac writing apps are in the best AI writing apps for Mac.
The menu names were checked against MacRumors and PCMag on October 27, 2026. Language limits and daily limits were checked against Apple’s Mac User Guide the same day.