diff --git a/kitty/cocoa_window.m b/kitty/cocoa_window.m
index d3198b399..32372f490 100644
--- a/kitty/cocoa_window.m
+++ b/kitty/cocoa_window.m
@@ -267,6 +267,12 @@ cocoa_get_lang(PyObject UNUSED *self) {
     return Py_BuildValue("s", [locale UTF8String]);
 }
 
+static PyObject*
+cocoa_get_double_click_interval(PyObject UNUSED *self) {
+    double interval = [NSEvent doubleClickInterval];
+    return Py_BuildValue("f", interval);
+}
+
 void
 cocoa_set_hide_from_tasks(void) {
     [NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyAccessory];
@@ -300,6 +306,7 @@ cocoa_set_titlebar_color(void *w, color_type titlebar_color)
 
 static PyMethodDef module_methods[] = {
     {"cocoa_get_lang", (PyCFunction)cocoa_get_lang, METH_NOARGS, ""},
+    {"cocoa_get_double_click_interval", (PyCFunction)cocoa_get_double_click_interval, METH_NOARGS, ""},
     {"cocoa_set_new_window_trigger", (PyCFunction)cocoa_set_new_window_trigger, METH_VARARGS, ""},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}        /* Sentinel */
 };
diff --git a/kitty/config_data.py b/kitty/config_data.py
index 882e32fb4..8f3e3b875 100644
--- a/kitty/config_data.py
+++ b/kitty/config_data.py
@@ -399,7 +399,15 @@ Characters considered part of a word when double clicking. In addition to these
 any character that is marked as an alpha-numeric character in the unicode
 database will be matched.'''))
 
-o('click_interval', 0.5, option_type=positive_float, long_text=_('''
+
+def click_interval(x):
+    if x == 'system':
+        from .fast_data_types import cocoa_get_double_click_interval
+        return cocoa_get_double_click_interval()
+    return positive_float(x)
+
+
+o('click_interval', 'system', option_type=click_interval, long_text=_('''
 The interval between successive clicks to detect
 double/triple clicks (in seconds)'''))