Iterative Design

BetterPaste

Clipboard history for the Mac. Everything you copied recently, one keystroke away — and none of it ever leaves your computer.

macOS remembers exactly one thing you copied. Copy something else and the previous item is gone, which is fine until the moment it isn't: you copy an address to paste into a form, copy a confirmation number on the way, and the address you needed is simply no longer there.

Windows solved this years ago with the Win + V panel. BetterPaste is that, built properly for the Mac. Press the shortcut, see what you have copied recently, pick one, and it pastes. That is the whole product.

What it does

• Keeps a rolling window of clipboard history. Everything you copy is held for a period of time you choose, then discarded automatically.
• Opens instantly with a keystroke. The panel is designed to be summoned, used, and dismissed without your hands leaving the keyboard.
• Filters as you type. Start typing to narrow down to the item you want rather than scrolling for it.
• Stays out of the way. No dock clutter, no background noise, no notifications.

You choose how long things stick around

BetterPaste is time-based rather than count-based. Instead of keeping the last fixed number of items, it keeps everything from the last stretch of time — and you decide how long that stretch is in settings. Set it short if you want your history to clear itself frequently; set it longer if you want to reach further back in the day. Once an item falls outside the window, it is dropped.

What it deliberately doesn't do

BetterPaste has no account to create, no server to sync with, and no analytics. It does not phone home, and it does not have a network layer to phone home with. Your clipboard history is stored locally on your Mac and nowhere else.

This is a deliberate constraint rather than a feature we have not gotten to yet. Clipboard contents are among the most sensitive data on a computer — passwords, account numbers, private messages, half-written email all pass through it. A clipboard manager that uploads that history is asking for a level of trust that the feature does not justify. We would rather not ask.

Requirements

BetterPaste runs on macOS. It requires permission to monitor the clipboard, which macOS will ask you to grant on first launch; this is what allows the app to record what you copy, and it is used for nothing else.

Getting help

Questions, bug reports, and feature requests go to support@iterative.design. See the support page for what to include so we can help you faster.