Raycast
About Raycast
Every Mac comes with Spotlight. You press Command and Space, type an app name, press Enter. It works fine. Raycast starts from that same habit and takes it much further. It is a keyboard first launcher for macOS, made by Raycast Technologies Ltd, a London based company founded by Thomas Paul Mann and Petr Nikolaev. You press a hotkey, usually Option plus Space, a small bar appears in the middle of your screen, and from there you can do far more than open apps.
The core idea is simple. Your hands stay on the keyboard. You type what you want, and Raycast figures out the action. Launch an app. Find a file. Do a calculation. Search the web. Resize a window. Paste something you copied yesterday. Ask an AI a question. The more you use it, the more of your daily routine moves into that little bar.
What it replaces and what it adds
Raycast does everything Spotlight does, then adds a layer Spotlight never had. The built in commands cover the basics well: app launching with fuzzy search that learns your habits, file search, a calculator, clipboard history, window management, text snippets that expand anywhere, and quicklinks that turn typed keywords into actions, like opening a specific search URL with your query already filled in.
Then there is the extensions store. This is where Raycast pulls ahead. There are well over a thousand extensions, made by Raycast and by the community, that connect the launcher to the tools you use: GitHub, Jira, Linear, Notion, Figma, Google Workspace, Spotify, and hundreds more. You can create a GitHub issue, search your Notion pages, or control Spotify playback without leaving the keyboard. Developers can also build their own extensions or run scripts, which makes the ceiling very high.
Clipboard history deserves a special mention. Every Mac user has had the moment of copying something, copying something else, and losing the first thing. Raycast keeps your clipboard history and lets you search it. Once you have this, going back to a Mac without it feels broken.
Snippets work the same way. If you type the same replies, addresses, or code blocks often, you give each one a short keyword and Raycast expands it wherever you type. It is a small feature that saves a surprising amount of time over a week.
The AI layer
Raycast includes an AI chat that lives inside the launcher. You can ask questions, summarize text, translate, or work with the content on your screen, using a choice of models. The free tier includes a usable amount of AI, and the Pro plan raises the limits and adds more models and features. Unlike a separate chatbot tab, the AI here sits one hotkey away from whatever you are doing, which is the whole point: it is part of the workflow, not a destination.
Setup: the first fifteen minutes
The best way to start is to replace Spotlight completely rather than run both. Split habits die slowly. During setup, give Raycast the hotkey your fingers already know, Command plus Space, so your Spotlight muscle memory opens Raycast instead. Then run the built in commands once each: calculator, file search, clipboard history, window management, snippets, quicklinks. Create two or three quicklinks for things you open constantly, a folder, a website, a search page. Make one snippet for your email signature. That is enough. Use it for a week before installing extensions, so you learn what you actually need instead of collecting tools you never open.
Pricing
Raycast has a free tier that is genuinely generous: the launcher, clipboard history, snippets, window management, and the extensions store are all included. Pro costs around eight dollars a month on annual billing and adds more AI usage, sync, and team features. Check the official site for current pricing.
Get it from the official source: https://www.raycast.com
A note on compatibility: Raycast is primarily a Mac app, and newer versions have specific macOS requirements, so check the download page to confirm the right version for your Mac. There is also a Windows version in public beta and an iOS companion app.
Who should switch
Raycast is for anyone who lives at the keyboard: developers, writers, designers, students, and anyone whose work involves jumping between apps and windows all day. If you only open a browser and an email app, Spotlight is fine and Raycast will feel like overkill. But if your day is a constant stream of small tasks, launching things, searching things, pasting things, managing windows, Raycast folds all of that into one fast bar. Try the free version for a week. Most people who do never go back.