Every Mac copy and paste shortcut worth knowing
The full set: copy, cut, paste, paste and match style, copy and paste style, screenshots straight to the clipboard, and pbcopy in Terminal.
Short answer
⌘C copies, ⌘X cuts, ⌘V pastes. The three most useful ones people miss are ⌥⇧⌘V to paste without the source formatting, ⌃⇧⌘4 to send a screen region straight to the clipboard, and ⌥⌘V in Finder to move a copied file instead of duplicating it.
Everyone knows three of these. The rest are the ones that remove a step you have been doing by hand for years: pasting into a plain-text field to strip formatting, saving a screenshot only to drag it somewhere and delete it, or copying a file and then going back to delete the original.
The full set
⌘C Copy
Replaces whatever was on the clipboard.
⌘X Cut
Text and files in most apps; Finder uses ⌥⌘V instead, below.
⌘V Paste
Brings the source formatting with it.
⌥⇧⌘V Paste and Match Style
Drops the source font, size and colour. The single most useful one on this list.
⌃⌘C Copy Style
Copies formatting without text. TextEdit, Pages, Keynote and similar.
⌃⌘V Paste Style
Applies that formatting to the selection.
⌥⌘V Move Item Here
In Finder, after ⌘C. Moves the original file.
⌃⇧⌘4 Region to clipboard
A screenshot with no file left on the desktop.
⌃⇧⌘3 Whole screen to clipboard
Same, for everything.
⇧⌘5 Screenshot toolbar
Where the capture destination and timer live.
⌘Z Undo
Undoes the paste. The clipboard is unaffected.
Paste and match style, and when it is a different shortcut
⌥⇧⌘V is the macOS standard, and it works in Mail, Notes, Pages, TextEdit, Safari text fields and most native apps. Some cross-platform apps use their own binding. Microsoft Word has historically used ⌃⌘V for Paste Special, and Google Docs in the browser uses ⇧⌘V. If neither works, the app's Edit menu will show what it has bound, and you can rebind it in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › App Shortcuts by typing the menu item's exact name.
The Terminal pair
pbcopy and pbpaste connect the shell to the same clipboard as everything else. cat key.pub | pbcopy puts a public key on the clipboard, pbpaste | wc -w counts the words in whatever you just copied, and pbpaste > note.txt writes it to a file. There ispbpaste reads the current item, not the recent items shown by Clipboard History in Spotlight.
The Clipboard History shortcut in macOS Tahoe
On macOS Tahoe or later, press ⌘Space to open Spotlight, then⌘4 to open Clipboard History. Learn how Clipboard History works on a Mac. A dedicated manager is useful when you want a separate, richer history that opens and pastes directly in the app you are already using.
Stowpad adds three:
⌘⌃⇧V Insert from Stowpad
Opens over the app you are typing in. Pick a clip, press Return, and it is inserted at the cursor. Assigned once in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Services.
⌘⌃⇧T Capture screen text
Select any region and get editable text back, indentation intact. Tables are recognised as tables.
⌘⌃⇧P Pick a colour
Click any pixel; the sRGB value goes into your history as a colour.
Common questions
How do I paste without formatting on a Mac?
Press ⌥⇧⌘V for Paste and Match Style. It drops the source font, size and colour and adopts the formatting where you are pasting. Some Microsoft and Google apps use a different shortcut.
How do I copy a screenshot straight to the clipboard?
Add Control. ⌃⇧⌘4 captures a region to the clipboard, ⌃⇧⌘3 captures the whole screen, and ⌃⇧⌘4 then Space captures a single window. Without Control, each one writes a file to your desktop instead.
How do I move a file on a Mac instead of copying it?
Copy it with ⌘C, then press ⌥⌘V at the destination. Finder's Edit menu shows this as Move Item Here, and it only appears while Option is held.
How do I copy from the Terminal to the clipboard?
Pipe into pbcopy. For example, ls | pbcopy copies a directory listing. pbpaste prints the current clipboard to standard output, so pbpaste > notes.txt saves it to a file.
Is there a shortcut for clipboard history on a Mac?
On macOS Tahoe or later, press ⌘Space to open Spotlight, then ⌘4 for Clipboard History. Stowpad uses ⌘⌃⇧V to open a separate history over the current app and paste the clip you choose.
Stowpad for Mac
An encrypted clipboard history that stays on your Mac, with on-device OCR, table capture and a colour picker. Free for the newest 30 clips; Pro adds unlimited history and the local tools above.
Get on the Mac App Store