Clipboard AI is built to be driven from the keyboard. Once the shortcuts are in your fingers, you can pull up anything you have ever copied and paste it without reaching for the mouse. Here is the full set, grouped by what you are doing.
Press ⌘⇧V from any app to open Clipboard AI at your cursor. Everything else you can pick up as you go.
These symbols are the keys on your Mac keyboard: ⌘ is Command, ⇧ is Shift, ⌥ is Option (sometimes labelled Alt), ⌃ is Control, ⏎ is Return, and esc is Escape.
Open and close the floating menu
The floating menu appears right where your cursor is, over whatever app you are in. Press the same shortcut again, or hit Escape, to dismiss it. Clicking anywhere outside the floating menu closes it too.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌘⇧V | Open the floating menu at your cursor, in any app |
| ⌘⇧V again | Close the floating menu |
| esc | Close the floating menu |
Find and paste a clip
Just start typing to search your whole history. Use the arrow keys to move through the results and Return to paste, or jump straight to one of the top ten clips by pressing its number.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| type | Search your whole clipboard history as you type |
| ↑ ↓ | Move the selection up and down |
| return | Paste the selected clip into the app you came from |
| 1 to 9 | Paste that clip straight away, first through ninth |
| 0 | Paste the tenth clip |
Open the floating menu and tap 1 through 9 (or 0 for the tenth) to paste that clip instantly, no Return needed. Once you have started typing a search, those digits go into the search box instead, so hold ⌘ and the number to paste, like ⌘1.
Change how a clip pastes
Hold a modifier as you click a clip, or as you press its number, to change what lands. These work on any single clip in the floating menu.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌥ Option + click or number | Paste as plain text, with fonts, colours, and links stripped out |
| ⇧ Shift + click or number | Paste the clip, then remove it from your history |
| ⌃ Control + click or number | Delete the clip from your history, without pasting it |
Paste several clips at once
You can paste a whole stack of clips from a single selection. Hold ⌘ and click clips in the floating menu to choose more than one. Each gets a number showing the order it will paste in, then you fire them with one of these.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌘ click | Add a clip to your selection, numbered in the order you pick |
| return | Paste All: paste every selected clip in order, back in the app you came from |
| ⌥return | Paste All as plain text, with formatting stripped |
| ⇧return | Paste All, then remove those clips from your history |
| ⌘return | Paste One by One: line the clips up in a queue you step through with your own ⌘V |
| esc | Clear the selection |
Paste All, Paste One by One, and Copy as one each shine in a different spot. See Paste several clips at once on Mac for when to use which.
Switch tabs
While you are browsing (before you start typing a search), the floating menu shows tabs for your categories and saved items. Cycle through them without leaving the keyboard.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌘] | Move to the next tab |
| ⌘[ | Move to the previous tab |
| tab ⇧tab | Also cycle through tabs while browsing |
Peek at an image
Clipboard AI keeps images in your history too. To check one before you paste it, select it and hold Space for a Quick Look style preview. Let go to hide it. This works while the search box is empty.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| hold space | Preview the selected image, release to hide it |
Paste as plain text, or clean it up first
Right-click any text clip in the floating menu for a few extra options. Paste as Plain Text drops the text in with fonts, colours, and links stripped out. The same menu holds the text transforms, so you can change case, trim spaces, strip HTML, encode a URL, and more, then paste the tidied-up result.
Every clip in the floating menu has a right-click menu. It is the fastest way to paste without formatting or to run a quick text transform before you paste.
Make the hotkey your own
Prefer a different combination? You can change the shortcut that opens Clipboard AI. Open Settings from the menu bar, click the hotkey field, and press the keys you want. You can also set Clipboard AI to launch at login so it is always in your menu bar.
Full walkthrough: Customize the hotkey and menu on Mac. New to the Mac app? Start with Paste anywhere on Mac with the hotkey.
Press ⌘P to print this page, or bookmark it, so the cheat sheet is always a glance away.