CopyPaste — Free Open Source Clipboard Manager

A local-first clipboard history and copy paste tool for Windows and macOS.
No ads. No telemetry. No accounts. Just a fast, private clipboard utility built for productivity.

CopyPaste 3.0 is here as a release candidate — the whole application rewritten in Rust, for Windows and macOS.
Try it from Releases. The 2.x stays supported on the v2-stable branch until the final release, and it is what the Store and Homebrew still install.
_{Much of what follows still describes the 2.x and is being rewritten alongside the 3.0.}

Download CopyPaste

 

rgdevment.com/copypaste

_{Prefer a direct download? GitHub Releases has standalone installers — Windows (.exe) · macOS (.dmg)}

CopyPaste is a free, open source clipboard manager and clipboard history tool I built because the alternatives frustrated me. Most copy paste utilities are either bloated, ugly, or treat you as a product. I wanted a copy tool that felt native, respected my privacy, and just worked — so I built one and shared it.

This isn't a company product. I'm a developer who needed a better copy paste tool for my desktop, built it for myself, and decided to open source it for anyone who feels the same. No ads, no telemetry, no subscriptions, no data collection — just a lightweight clipboard utility that lives on your machine and nowhere else.

Why people choose CopyPaste over other clipboard managers:

• 100% local — your clipboard history never leaves your computer. No cloud, no servers, no accounts.
• Truly free — no premium tiers, no feature gates, no "free trial" tricks. GPL v3, forever. Only redistributing it inside a product of your own needs separate terms.
• Cross-platform — same native copy-paste experience on Windows and macOS.
• Fast and light — starts in milliseconds, uses minimal resources. You'll forget it's running.
• Beautiful — follows your OS theme (light/dark), with Mica effect on Windows and native materials on macOS.

I use CopyPaste every day on Windows 11 and macOS. If something feels off, let me know — this project keeps improving because of real-world use.

Linux support has been discontinued. See Linux support (discontinued).

• See It in Action
• Why I Built This
• What It Is / What It Isn't
• Who Is This For?
• Privacy and Security
• Key Features
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Getting Started
• FAQ
• Support and Bug Reporting
• Starting Over, and Taking It With You
• Found a Bug? Have Feedback?
• Localization
• Want to Help?
• Tech Stack
• Other Tools by the Same Author
• License and Spirit

I'm not a company. I'm a developer who copies and pastes things hundreds of times a day — and got frustrated.

Most clipboard managers out there are either bloated, ugly, Windows-only, or silently collecting your data. In 2026, a copy paste tool should feel native, responsive, and beautiful on every platform. I couldn't find one that did, so I built my own.

CopyPaste started as a personal productivity tool. I needed a lightweight copy history utility that:

• Didn't hog system resources
• Looked and felt like part of my OS, not a widget dropped on top
• Worked on both Windows and macOS
• Didn't require an account, subscription, or internet connection
• Actually respected my privacy — not just claimed to

After months of using it myself, I realized others might need it too. So I open sourced it — no ads, no tracking, no strings attached for the people who use it.

Every line of code is public. You can read it, fork it, or learn from it. This is a free, open source productivity tool — a copy tool built from a real need. Redistributing it inside a product of your own is the one case that needs separate terms.

CopyPaste is:

• A local-first clipboard manager and clipboard history app for Windows and macOS
• A fast, keyboard-driven copy-paste utility for daily productivity and workflow efficiency
• A copy tool you can trust — open source (GPL v3), inspect every line, fork it, contribute to it

CopyPaste is not:

• A cloud clipboard or sync service
• A telemetry or analytics tool
• A "platform" with accounts, subscriptions, or ads
• A corporate product — it's a personal project shared with the community

If you copy and paste throughout your day, this clipboard manager is for you:

• Developers juggling code snippets, terminal commands, and log outputs — a real productivity boost
• Students collecting notes, quotes, and research sources into a searchable copy history
• Writers and creators reusing text fragments and assets across documents
• Support and operations teams handling repetitive copy-paste responses
• Anyone who wants a clean, private, free clipboard history tool on their computer

Everything stays local. CopyPaste is built on a single, non-negotiable principle: your clipboard data never leaves your computer. This copy-paste tool was designed with privacy as the foundation, not an afterthought.

• Local-only storage — no cloud, no servers, no data syncing
• No tracking — no telemetry, no analytics, no hidden collection of any kind
• No automatic reporting — errors are logged locally; nothing is sent without your explicit action
• Sensitive content is ignored — passwords and password-manager copies (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.) aren't saved
• Log export is voluntary — you choose when and what to share; logs never contain clipboard content

By design, CopyPaste will never have: accounts, subscriptions, ads, cloud sync, or "AI analysis" of your clipboard.

For responsible disclosure and security contact info, see SECURITY.md.

If you care about privacy and control, this clipboard manager is made for you. Read the full Privacy Policy for complete details.

Latest Release — See all features and improvements in the Release Notes.

• Private by Default: All clipboard history stays on your computer. No cloud, no sync, no servers.
• Respects Sensitive Data: Passwords and API keys aren't stored. Password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.) are ignored — their clipboard content never gets saved.

• Native where it matters: The panel answers the keys of the system it runs on — Ctrl on Windows, ⌘ on a Mac — and lives in the tray or in the menu bar, where you expect to find it.
• Follows your theme: Light or dark, whichever your system is using, or the one you pick in Settings.
• Fast and Lightweight: Starts quickly and doesn't hog resources. Lightweight enough to forget it's running.

• Handles Everything: Text, images, files, folders, links, audio and video — with previews that understand what they are showing.
• Knows What You Copied: Fifteen kinds recognised on their own — code, JSON, links, emails, phone numbers, colours, IP addresses, UUIDs and tokens among them. Each gets its own icon and its own filter, and a JSON or a token opens already readable.
• Finds Text Inside Images: A screenshot is searchable by what it says, read on your machine by the system itself — Vision on macOS, Windows.Media.Ocr on Windows. Nothing is uploaded to read it.
• Paste It as Something Else: The same card pasted as plain text, or in another of the forms it carries, without touching what is stored.
• Copy Without Pasting: Put a card back on the clipboard and paste it yourself, later, wherever you want.
• Open with Default App: Files, images, links, emails and phone numbers open in whatever your system already uses. Links go through LinkUnbound when you have it installed, and to your browser when you do not.
• Drag to Other Apps (Windows, 2.x only): Drag any image, file, folder, audio or video card straight into another app — a browser upload zone, a chat, an editor. The 3.0 does not carry this yet, on either platform.

• Full Keyboard Navigation: Search, move, pin, rename and paste without the mouse. The search box has the focus the moment the panel opens.
• Smart Search: Accent-insensitive full-text search across what you copied, the names you gave it, and the text read out of images.
• A Name for Any Card: Give a card a name and find it later by that name.
• Filter by Kind: Pick a kind from the strip, hold the modifier to add kinds instead of swapping them, or type #image straight into the search box.
• Pin Important Items: What you pin stays at the top, and nothing sweeps it away — not age, not the quota, not emptying the history.
• Backup and Restore: Export everything to a single .cpbackup file and import it anywhere, without losing what is already there.
• Start with Your Session: Optionally launch at login, on Windows and on macOS, without admin rights.
• A Welcome That Teaches: First run walks through the shortcut, where the app lives and how the panel works — and on a Mac, through the one permission it needs to paste for you.
• Settings That Save Themselves: Five sections — General, Keyboard shortcuts, History, Backup, About — with no Save or Cancel buttons.

• Keep for as Long as You Want: Anything older than the window you choose goes on its own. Pinned items never do.
• Image Quota (MB): Cap how much disk space copied images can use. When the cap is reached the oldest unpinned ones are evicted. Set to 0 (default) for unlimited.
• Native Thumbnails: Previews for images, video and audio are generated by the system itself, not by a bundled decoder.

CopyPaste keeps Ctrl+V under the active application's control and uses one global shortcut of its own to open the history panel. On a Mac the panel answers the keys of the system it runs on: ⌘ where Windows uses Ctrl, and the keys a Mac keyboard does not have are replaced by the ones it does.

The search box always has the focus, so you type to search the moment the panel opens. A word starting with # filters by kind (#image, #link, #imagen) instead of searching for it.

It opens where you left off and pastes back where you were. The shortcut brings it up over whatever you were writing in, and what you choose goes into that application, not into a window you then have to leave.

You type to find things. The search box has the focus the moment the panel appears, and it searches what you copied, the names you gave it and the text read out of your screenshots. A word starting with # filters by kind instead of searching for it, and the strip above the list does the same with a click — hold the modifier and the clicks add kinds rather than swapping them.

Each kind is shown the way that kind deserves. Images as a grid or as rows, a video by its cover, audio as a waveform, a JSON by its keys or raw, links and folders grouped or by age. The panel remembers which way you chose for each.

A card takes a name, and keeps it. Give one a name and it is searchable by that name afterwards, which is how a snippet you reach for every day stops being something you scroll for.

What you pin stays. Nothing sweeps it away: not age, not the quota, not emptying the history.

After installing, open the panel with Ctrl+Alt+V on Windows or ⌥⌘V on a Mac. Both are customizable in Settings → Keyboard shortcuts, and the first run walks you through it.

Microsoft Store (recommended) — one click, automatic updates, no security warnings.

Install from the Microsoft Store

winget — for command-line installs, tracked with winget upgrade:

winget install rgdevment.CopyPaste

The Scoop bucket carries CopyPaste 2 and is not fed by the 3.0 release.

Standalone .exe — direct download from GitHub Releases. The installer is self-signed; see the security note below.

Homebrew (recommended) — picks the build for your chip, Apple Silicon or Intel, and tracks updates with brew upgrade:

brew tap rgdevment/tap && brew install --cask copypaste

Standalone .dmg — direct download from GitHub Releases, one per chip, with manual updates.

Linux was maintained through v2.11.0 and is discontinued from there on. Keeping the X11 shell (global hotkey, XTest paste-back, AppIndicator tray) and the AppImage / .deb / .rpm pipeline alive was beyond the resources of a single-maintainer project, so the platform was retired rather than left to rot half-working.

• v2.11.0 is the last release with Linux builds, and it stays available. Its artifacts remain on GitHub Releases and keep working; installed copies point there instead of at a version they cannot install. They receive no fixes, no security updates and no new features.
• No new Linux packages are published. The openSUSE Build Service repositories, the Homebrew copypaste-linux formula and the self-updating AppImage are frozen at v2.11.0 so reinstalling still works, but nothing new lands there.
• Your data is untouched. History, images and settings stay in ~/.local/share/com.rgdevment.copypaste/CopyPaste/ — back that folder up before uninstalling if you want to keep it.
• Bug reports for Linux are not accepted. The last state with full Linux support is archived on the v2-linux-archive branch — code, packaging and CI included — for anyone who wants to fork and continue it. The GPL v3 licence covers exactly that.

Direct packages live on GitHub Releases:

Is CopyPaste free? Yes. Completely free and open source. No premium tiers, no subscriptions, no paywalls — ever. That covers using it anywhere, including across a company, and packaging it for a distribution or package manager. Only redistributing it inside a product of your own needs separate terms.

Does it upload my clipboard data? No. Everything stays on your machine. There is no cloud, no server, no sync. CopyPaste is a local-first clipboard manager by design — your copy paste data never leaves your computer.

Does it store passwords? No. Passwords and clipboard content from password managers are automatically ignored.

Do I need internet to use it? No. CopyPaste works fully offline. The standalone version makes a lightweight check for updates (no user data sent), but works perfectly without a connection.

Does it sync clipboard history between devices? No. There's intentionally no cloud sync. Your copy history stays on the device where you copied it. This is a local-first copy tool, not a cloud service.

Where is my clipboard history stored? Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\CopyPaste\ — macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.rgdevment.copypaste/CopyPaste/. Each folder contains the database, images, config, and logs.

What platforms does this copy-paste tool support? Windows 10/11 and macOS (Ventura+). Linux support was discontinued — see Linux support (discontinued).

Does it start with my session? Optionally, yes, on both systems. Enable it in Settings → General. On Windows it registers through the standard startup mechanism, and on macOS through a login item of its own. No administrator rights are required.

Does the macOS version work on Intel Macs? Yes. There is a build for each chip, Apple Silicon and Intel. Homebrew picks the right one for you, and the Releases page carries both.

How is CopyPaste different from other clipboard managers? CopyPaste is a personal project, not a company product. There are no ads, no telemetry, no accounts, and no data collection. Unlike most copy paste tools, it's built to feel native on each platform (Mica on Windows, Sidebar material on macOS), it's fully keyboard-driven, and it respects your privacy completely. It's an open source clipboard utility focused on productivity — you can verify every line of code yourself.

If CopyPaste is misbehaving, you can export a diagnostic log bundle directly from the app.

Steps:

1. Open CopyPaste → Settings (gear icon)
2. Go to the About tab
3. Under Support, click "Export Logs"
4. Save the .zip file to a location of your choice
5. Attach the zip to your GitHub issue

The zip includes:

• Recent application log files (.log)
• The crash.log file if one exists (created when the app fails to start or crashes during initialization)
• A device_info.txt with your OS version and app version — no personal data

Privacy guarantee: Logs and the crash file contain only application events, errors and stack traces. Your clipboard content is never written to any of them. Before zipping, an automatic redaction pass replaces your user name, home folder path and any email addresses with <USER>, <HOME> and <EMAIL> placeholders. The exported file stays on your machine until you explicitly share it. Nothing is sent automatically.

If you prefer to inspect log files directly:

1. Settings → About → Support → "Open Logs Folder"
2. Your file manager opens at the logs directory

Logs are plain text — you can review them before deciding what to share.

1. Open a new issue
2. Describe what happened and steps to reproduce
3. Attach the exported log zip (optional but very helpful)
4. Include your OS version and CopyPaste version (shown in Settings → About)

You decide exactly what you share. The reporting process is fully manual and private.

Everything here is in Settings, and nothing of it reaches the network.

Settings → History → Empty the history deletes everything you copied and keeps what you pinned. It cannot be undone.

Settings → Backup → Export writes a single .cpbackup file with everything: text, images and what you pinned. Import adds what the file holds to the history you already have, without losing any of it, so the same file can be restored twice without making a mess.

The first run offers to bring the 2.x history over, and Settings → Backup offers it again later. Your 2.x data is only read, never written, and the old application keeps working.

Quit CopyPaste from the tray (Windows) or the menu bar (macOS) and delete the data folder listed above. Settings → History → Data folder → Open folder takes you to it. Starting it again is a fresh installation, welcome tour included.

Your feedback shapes what gets built next. Here's how to reach me:

When reporting bugs, include:

• OS and version (e.g., Windows 11 24H2, macOS Sequoia 15.3)
• What you were doing
• Any error messages
• CopyPaste version (check Settings → About)
• Exported log zip if available (Settings → About → Support → Export Logs) — it now also bundles crash.log if the app failed to start, with personal info redacted automatically

I keep a clear record of what's been added, fixed, and planned:

View Release Notes & Changelog — complete history of all changes.

CopyPaste should speak your language. Currently it supports English and Spanish, but the goal is to reach people everywhere.

• Automatic Detection: The app detects your system language and applies the appropriate translation.
• Regional Fallback: If your exact region isn't available (e.g., es-MX), it falls back to the base language (e.g., es-CL).
• Manual Override: You can force a specific language in the Settings panel.

CopyPaste is written in two languages at once, and every string sits next to its twin. There is no translation file format to learn: the pairs live in the code.

In Rust the pairs are written ("español", "english") and picked by say::pick. In TypeScript they are two objects with the same keys.

1. Create a branch from main.
2. Widen the pair into a choice. A third language means say::pick and locales.ts stop being a pair and become a lookup — open an issue first so the shape is agreed before anyone translates 300 strings into a dead end.
3. Translate, keeping the keys and the placeholders ({one}) untouched.
4. Check it with cargo test -p cp-panel and npm test: both suites assert that nothing is left empty and that the tongues actually differ.
5. Submit a pull request.

• Keep translations concise — UI space is limited
• Use a neutral tone, and address the reader informally
• Preserve placeholders like {one}
• Don't translate brand names (CopyPaste, Windows, etc.)
• Don't change the keys, only what they say

Contributions are always appreciated — whether that's a bug report, a translation, or a pull request:

• Write Code — Fix bugs or add features. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup.
• Translate — Add your language. See guide.
• Report Bugs — If something breaks, open an issue.
• Share Ideas — Tell me what you wish this clipboard manager could do.

If you're curious about what's under the hood of this open source clipboard manager:

CopyPaste follows your system theme automatically — no configuration needed.

• Light — Clean and bright, matching a light OS theme.
• Dark — Easy on the eyes, matching a dark OS theme.
• You can override the automatic selection in Settings → General → Theme.

I build free, open source tools focused on privacy and productivity. If you like CopyPaste, you might also find these useful:

A free, open source browser picker for Windows and Mac. Every link you click gets intercepted — domain rules open the assigned browser instantly, or a small picker appears near your cursor to let you choose. Resolves Microsoft SafeLinks and redirect wrappers before matching rules.

No ads. No telemetry. No accounts. Everything local.

Notes, documents and tasks that stay on your machine, in plain files you can read without it. Same rules as everything else here: no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud.

CopyPaste — A modern, open source clipboard manager and copy-paste tool for Windows and macOS. Copyright (C) 2026 Mario Hidalgo G. (rgdevment)

This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for more information.

CopyPaste is dual licensed. The GPL-3.0 covers everyone using, deploying, auditing, packaging or forking it — which is almost everybody, and it costs nothing. Redistributing it inside a product of your own needs separate terms: see COMMERCIAL.md.

Packaging it for a distribution or package manager is ordinary GPL redistribution and needs no permission from anyone.

Contributions require a one-time CLA; you keep the copyright on your work.

I built CopyPaste because I was tired of the alternatives — bloated, resource-hungry, or disrespectful of my privacy. This is a personal copy paste productivity tool, built from a real need, shared because others might need a better clipboard manager too. Free to use, free to inspect, free forever. No analytics, no subscription, no upsell.

If you find it useful, I'm glad. If you want to help make it better, even better.