An auto key presser for Mac
InputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.
InputConfig is a free auto key presser for Mac. It presses a key for you over and over at the gap you set, or holds it down until you say stop, and it is free and open source on the Mac App Store. You need it because, to most games, holding a key on a Mac is one long press, and key repeat in Keyboard settings only helps where an app reads repeated characters, such as a text field.
On this page
Repeat a key
- Install InputConfig and allow Accessibility access.
- Click Add a new bind, press Scan, and press the control that starts it: a spare mouse button, a controller button, a MIDI pad, or a key that types nothing.
- Set the output to Keyboard Key and pick the key. For a combination such as Command R, click Add another output under the outputs and pick a second Keyboard Key. Keys on one row go down together.
- In Options, set How it fires to Repeats while held to press the key only while you hold the control, or Repeats until pressed again to start it with one press and stop it with the next.
- Set Every in milliseconds. 50 ms is twenty presses a second. 1000 ms is one.
- Save, close the editor and activate the preset.
Two more settings shape a run:
- Vary by up to. Adds a random plus or minus to each gap.
- Stop after. Ends the run after a number of presses.
Keys go to whichever app is in front, the way a real keyboard's do.
Repeat only after a pause, like a keyboard
For arrows in a list or Backspace in a document, you may want the keyboard's own behavior instead: nothing for a moment, then a steady repeat. Leave the row on Fires while held and tick Repeat keys while held. The pace follows Key repeat rate and Delay until repeat in System Settings, Keyboard. Making a button repeat a key compares the two.
Hold a key down instead
Some jobs want a key held, not repeated: auto-run with W, a held Shift, a mouse button held for a long drag. Choose Toggles on and off. One press holds the output down, the next press lets it go.
The built-in Toggle Mode preset shows four examples, and holding a key with a controller covers the rest.
Press a key a set number of times
The Repeat field under the press menu fires the output several times from one press, with a Wait between them that you set in milliseconds. Three presses of Down with 80 ms between them is one button that moves three rows in a list.
Type a phrase over and over
Set the output to Type Text and write the phrase.
- On a normal row. Each press types it once.
- With Repeats until pressed again. It types the phrase at every gap until you press again.
Pick the control that starts it
InputConfig listens to the keyboard alongside macOS, so it cannot take a key away. The key you bind as the trigger still types, so pick one that does nothing else:
- F13 to F19. On an extended keyboard.
- Right Option on a MacBook. If you do not type accented letters with it.
- A mouse side button. Tick Block the button's own action on its row and it stops also going Back in a browser.
- A controller button or a MIDI pad. Neither types anything.
InputConfig also cannot stop a key on your keyboard from repeating on its own. macOS key repeat is set in Keyboard settings. The auto clicker hotkey page explains why F6 needs fn on a MacBook, which applies to a key presser too.
Stop it
Climb this ladder, smallest step first:
- Press the trigger again. The run stops.
- Use the emergency stop. Control Option Command period. The emergency stop lets go of every key the app is holding.
Some games treat repeated or automated keys as cheating, so check their rules first.
The short version
- Repeat. Choose Repeats while held, or Repeats until pressed again, and set the gap in Every.
- Repeat like a keyboard. Use Repeat keys while held, which is paced by System Settings, Keyboard.
- Hold. Choose Toggles on and off, for auto-run and held modifiers.
Pick the mode by what the game expects: many presses, or one long one.
Questions
Is there a free auto key presser for Mac?
Yes. InputConfig is free and open source on the Mac App Store, with no account and no paid features.
Can it spam the space bar?
Yes. Put Space on a row with Repeats while held. The built-in Macros & Turbo preset fires Space twelve times a second from RB.
Can it hold W down for auto-run?
Yes. Put W on a row with Toggles on and off: one press holds it, the next releases it.
Can a held button repeat a key the way a keyboard does?
Yes, since 1.6. Tick Repeat keys while held on the row and the key repeats at the rate set in System Settings, Keyboard.
Does it work on a MacBook?
Yes, on any Mac with macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
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