How to See Your Clipboard History on a Mac (and Paste Anything You Copied Earlier)

TL;DR

Press ⌥⌘V and Paster's panel opens over your current app without taking focus, so ⌘V still pastes where you were. History covers text, rich text, images and files, searchable (including Chinese, Japanese and Korean).

Use it

  1. Copy things as you normally do.
  2. Press ⌥⌘V. The panel opens over your app without taking focus.
  3. Search or scroll. Each row shows the source app and how long ago.
  4. Pick a clip and paste.

Handy extras

  • Copy the same thing twice and it moves to the top instead of duplicating.
  • Filter by type, star favourites and enlarge any image or long text.
  • Substring search works across CJK.

Limits

1,000 items and 30 days. Starred items and pinned images stay.

Requires

macOS 14 or later.

FAQ

How long is history kept? Up to 1,000 items and 30 days. Favourites and pinned images are never swept.

Does it record passwords? Clips that an app marks confidential, as password managers do, are never recorded.

Does Paster use the internet? No. It has no code that can reach the internet and runs sandboxed.

The app Paster →