How to see clipboard history on Mac

On macOS Tahoe 26 or later, press ⌘Space to open Spotlight, then press ⌘4 to see your clipboard history. On older versions, your Mac keeps only the last thing you copied, which you can view in Finder with Edit > Show Clipboard. If you need a longer history with pins and search, a clipboard manager such as PasteNotch keeps it for you.

Does a Mac keep a clipboard history?

For most of its life, no. The Mac clipboard holds one item. Each time you copy, the new item replaces the old one. Copy a link, then copy a sentence, and the link is gone.

macOS Tahoe 26 changed that. Spotlight can now keep a short history of what you copy.

How do you see what's on the clipboard right now?

This works on any recent version of macOS.

1. Click the Finder in the Dock.
2. Choose Edit > Show Clipboard in the menu bar.

A small window shows the text or image you copied last. For other kinds of content, such as a file, it shows a short description instead. It only ever shows one item.

How do you see clipboard history in Spotlight on macOS Tahoe?

1. Press ⌘Space to open Spotlight.
2. Press ⌘4, or click the Clipboard button next to the search field.
3. The first time, macOS may ask you to allow Clipboard results. Allow it to start keeping a history.
4. Type to search what you copied.
5. To reuse an item, click the copy button beside it, or select it and press ⌘C. Then paste with ⌘V where you need it.

To erase the history, click the More button next to the search field and choose Clear History. Apple notes that sensitive information may appear in the list, so clear it before you share your screen.

How do you turn it on, off, or change how long it keeps items?

1. Open System Settings and click Spotlight.
2. Scroll to Results from Clipboard at the bottom.
3. Turn it on or off. On macOS Tahoe 26.1 and later, choose to keep items for 30 minutes, 8 hours or 7 days.
4. Click Clear Clipboard History to delete everything at once.

What are the limits of the built-in clipboard history?

• It needs macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
• The longest it keeps anything is 7 days.
• Text is saved without its formatting.
• Some things are not saved, such as copies from Apple's Passwords app, items from your iPhone or iPad through Universal Clipboard, and very long text.
• Some apps, such as Mail, may not add items to the history.

For finding a link you copied this morning, that's often enough.

When does a clipboard manager help?

A clipboard manager is worth it when the built-in history runs out. That usually means one of these:

• You need something you copied last week or last month.
• You reuse the same text every day, such as an address, a reply or a command, and want it pinned.
• You copy screenshots and want to find them by the words inside.
• You use a Mac that can't run macOS Tahoe.

There are good free and paid options. Our clipboard manager comparison lists eight of them, including where each one falls short.

How do you see clipboard history with PasteNotch?

PasteNotch is our clipboard manager for Mac. It keeps your history on your Mac, opens from the notch, and syncs through your own iCloud. It needs macOS 14 or later and also works on Macs without a notch.

1. Download PasteNotch and move it to your Applications folder.
2. Open it and sign in with Google or your email. Your 14-day free trial starts. No subscription.
3. Copy as usual. PasteNotch saves text, links, images and files.
4. Open your history from the notch at the top of your screen, or press ⇧⌘V.
5. Type to search. Text inside copied images and screenshots is read on your Mac, so you can find an image by a word in it.
6. Select a clip to use it. To paste it straight into the app you were in, give PasteNotch Accessibility permission. Copying works without it.
7. To keep a clip, right-click it and choose Pin. Pinned clips and clips saved to a Page are kept when you clear your history.

Use Pages to group clips by project, such as a design link, brand colors and a command you always forget. Use the filters next to search to show only pinned clips or only clips with text found in images.

PasteNotch skips items that password managers mark as concealed or temporary. After the trial, your clips, search and paste keep working; saving new clips needs the $4.99 one-time purchase.