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The best clipboard managers for Mac in 2026

Updated October 20, 2026

Quick disclosure before anything else: this post is published by the people who make Cupola, a Mac app with its own clipboard tab. We've tried to keep the rest of this roundup honest and fact-checked anyway: every competitor claim below is sourced from that product's own site, App Store listing, or documentation, checked in October 2026, with links at the bottom. If you came here looking for the best clipboard manager for Mac, here are six worth knowing about, including where Cupola does and doesn't fit.

What a clipboard manager actually does

macOS only remembers the single most recent thing you copied. A clipboard manager sits in the background and keeps a history of everything you copy, text, links, images, sometimes files, so you can search back through it and paste something you copied five minutes or five days ago. Beyond that baseline, the apps below differ a lot: some are free and open source, some are subscriptions with cross-device sync, some are bundled into bigger launcher tools, and some (like Cupola) bundle clipboard history into a bigger app built around something else entirely.

Maccy, free and open source

Maccy is a lightweight, free, open-source clipboard manager for macOS, released under the MIT license and maintained on GitHub. It lives in the menu bar, keeps a searchable clipboard history, and is fully keyboard-driven: ⇧⌘C opens it, typing searches, Return copies the selected item, ⌥Return pastes it. You can pin frequently used items, ignore specific apps or clipboard types (it skips common password-manager pasteboard types by default), and pause monitoring entirely. It requires macOS Sonoma 14 or later and installs via Homebrew (brew install maccy) or a direct download from its GitHub releases page.

Price: Free. Who it's for: Anyone who wants a no-frills, auditable, keyboard-first clipboard tool and doesn't want to pay or subscribe for one.

Paste, cross-device history and pinboards

Paste keeps a visual timeline of everything you copy, text, links, images, PDFs, files and rich content, with full-text search (including text recognized inside images), filters by content type/app/date, and "Pinboards" for organizing reusable snippets and templates, including shared pinboards for working with other people. It syncs clipboard history and pinboards across Mac, iPhone and iPad via iCloud, and adds a "Paste Stack" for pasting multiple items in sequence plus an "Intelligent Clipboard" feature on macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence enabled. It needs macOS 14 or later.

Price: $3.99/month, or $29.99/year for the Personal plan (about $2.49/month paid annually), with a one-time Lifetime option, Family plan (App Store only), and Teams plan (from $26.99/user/year for five seats). Included free with a Setapp subscription. A 7-day free trial is available, no card required when downloaded directly. Who it's for: People who move between Mac, iPhone and iPad and want the same clipboard history and organized snippet collections on all three.

Raycast Clipboard History, free, part of a bigger launcher

Raycast is a Spotlight-style launcher for Mac, and Clipboard History is one of its built-in features, included free on Raycast's Free plan with up to 3 months of retention. It stores text, images, files, links, emails and colors, stores everything locally (clipboard data isn't synced through Raycast's Cloud Sync), and ignores sensitive entries like password-manager clips by default. Raycast Pro extends retention to 6 months, 1 year, or unlimited, alongside Raycast's other Pro features (AI, Cloud Sync, unlimited Notes). The current Raycast v2 requires an Apple silicon Mac on macOS Tahoe; Raycast v1 (macOS 13 Ventura or later, Intel or Apple silicon) remains available for older setups.

Price: Free for Clipboard History with 3-month retention; Raycast Pro is $10/month or $96/year for unlimited retention plus other features. Who it's for: People who already use (or want) a full launcher app and don't want a separate single-purpose clipboard utility.

Alfred Clipboard History, a Powerpack add-on

Alfred, another long-running macOS launcher, offers Clipboard History as one of the features unlocked by its Powerpack, a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It stores searchable text, images and file links you copy, configurable for 24-hour, 7-day, 1-month or 3-month retention, and needs Accessibility permission to work. Alfred 5 requires macOS 10.14 Mojave or later. The Powerpack costs £34 for a Single License (one user, up to two of that user's Macs) or £59 for a Mega Supporter license (includes free lifetime Alfred updates); purchases currently include a free upgrade to Alfred 6.

Price: £34 (Single License) or £59 (Mega Supporter), one-time. Who it's for: Existing or prospective Alfred users who want clipboard history alongside Alfred's other launcher workflows, and prefer a one-time purchase over a subscription.

Pastebot 3, Tapbots' clipboard manager

Pastebot 3, from Tapbots (the makers of Tweetbot), is a dedicated Mac clipboard manager available on the Mac App Store, requiring macOS 26.2 or later according to its App Store listing. It's a free download with in-app subscription pricing of $2.99/month or $24.99/year on the App Store; Tapbots also sells a direct, non-subscription option outside the App Store for $39 one-time (including one year of updates, with additional years at $19).

Price: $2.99/month or $24.99/year via the App Store; $39 one-time plus optional update years via Tapbots directly. Who it's for: People who want a modern, actively developed, purpose-built clipboard manager and are comfortable with either a subscription or Tapbots' direct lifetime-style purchase.

Where Cupola fits

Cupola isn't a dedicated clipboard manager: it's a $20, one-time-purchase Mac app that puts your real Apple Calendar, Reminders and Notes, plus a clipboard tab and a Focus timer, in the MacBook notch (five tabs total), and opens into a full app window when you want more room. Its Clipboard tab remembers what you copy, text, links, images and files, keeping your newest 500 clips plus anything you pin, stored only on your Mac; passwords from password managers are skipped automatically. You get filtering by kind (All, Pinned, Text, Links), search, editable text clips, drag-to-reorder pins, and multi-select actions (Copy Together, Pin, Unpin, Delete). It needs an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later, and comes with a 7-day free trial (no card) and a 14-day refund.

If clipboard history is the only thing on your list, any of the five apps above will serve you better: most are free, cheaper, or more fully-featured on that one axis alone. But if you also want your Apple Calendar, Reminders and Notes a hover away in the notch, not just your clipboard, Cupola bundles all four into one $20 purchase instead of running a separate calendar app, a separate reminders workflow, and a separate clipboard tool side by side.

Quick comparison

App Price (Oct 2026) Sync across devices Requirements
Maccy Free, open source No macOS Sonoma 14+
Paste $3.99/mo or $29.99/yr (+ Lifetime option) Yes, iCloud (Mac/iPhone/iPad) macOS 14+
Raycast Clipboard History Free (3-mo retention); Pro $10/mo or $96/yr No (local only) macOS Tahoe + Apple silicon (v2); macOS 13+ (v1)
Alfred Clipboard History £34 or £59 one-time (Powerpack) Not listed macOS 10.14+
Pastebot 3 $2.99/mo or $24.99/yr (App Store); $39 one-time (direct) Not listed macOS 26.2+
Cupola $20 once No (local only) Apple silicon, macOS 26+

Bottom line

For a free, auditable, clipboard-only tool, start with Maccy. For cross-device sync and organized pinboards, Paste is the most capable. If you already use a launcher, Raycast or Alfred add clipboard history to tools you may already run. If you want a purpose-built, actively updated clipboard app with a one-time purchase option, look at Pastebot 3. And if what you actually want is your Apple Calendar, Reminders and Notes, plus a clipboard tab, all a hover away in the notch for a single $20 payment, that's what we built Cupola for. Try it free for 7 days at /#get.

See also: Cupola vs Maccy, Cupola vs Paste, and Cupola vs NotchNook.

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