Clipboard manager with OCR for Mac
Most clipboard managers only remember text. Clipboard Doctor also reads the text inside the screenshots and images you copy — so your whole clipboard history is searchable, even the pictures. On-device, free, in Arabic and English.
Download for macOS — freemacOS 13+ · 2-minute install guide
What OCR adds to a clipboard manager
OCR — optical character recognition — turns the text baked into an image into real, searchable text. Without it, a copied screenshot is just pixels: you can paste it, but you can never find it again by what it says. With it, every image in your history becomes findable by its contents.
Copy a screenshot of a stack trace, a slide from a call, a photographed receipt, or a chat bubble, and weeks later type a word you remember seeing — Clipboard Doctor surfaces the exact clip. The recognition happens the instant you copy, so nothing needs re-scanning later.
Make your screenshots searchable — freemacOS 13+ · on-device · no account
How Clipboard Doctor's OCR works
- Runs automatically on every image you copy — no manual "scan this" step.
- Uses Apple's Vision framework, entirely on-device — images are never uploaded.
- Recognizes Arabic and English text as a first-class feature — a rare pairing.
- Indexes the recognized text so it shows up in the same search box as your copied text.
- Free — no Pro tier, no paywall in front of OCR.
Free OCR, not a paid upgrade
OCR has become a checkbox feature that many clipboard managers now advertise — some free, some paid. On the free side, Maccy and Raycast both added on-device text recognition, though each is English-oriented (and Raycast's fuller history is launcher-bound and Pro-tier). On the paid side, Clipory gates image-text OCR behind its $7 Lifetime Pro, and the head-of-market apps (Paste at $29.99/year, Maus Pro) sit above a subscription or upgrade. Clipboard Doctor runs OCR on every copied image for free — no account, nothing uploaded — and does it in both Arabic and English, which the free alternatives don't document.
Bilingual Arabic + English — the rare part
Plenty of tools OCR English. Recognizing Arabic text inside a screenshot — right-to-left, cursive, context-shaped letters — and keeping it searchable alongside English is uncommon. If you work across both languages, this is the feature that turns a wall of screenshots into something you can actually search. See the Arabic clipboard manager page for detail.
A full clipboard manager, not just an OCR gimmick
The OCR sits inside a complete clipboard tool:
- Full history of text and images, kept indefinitely — not wiped after a few hours.
- Tags and pinning to keep the clips you reach for close.
- Snippets — reusable text fragments with short names.
- Global hotkey (⌃⇧W) to bring up your history from any app.
- Offline and private — no account, no cloud sync, no telemetry.
Questions
What is a clipboard manager with OCR?
A clipboard manager keeps a history of everything you copy; one with OCR also reads the text inside the images you copy so that text becomes searchable. Copy a screenshot of an error message or a receipt and you can later find it by a word it contains — the OCR runs on-device the moment you copy.
Is the OCR free?
Yes. OCR is included at no cost — there is no Pro tier or paywall in front of it. Some clipboard managers advertise OCR but gate it behind a paid upgrade; Clipboard Doctor runs it on every copied image for free.
Does the OCR work with Arabic?
Yes — Arabic and English, as a documented first-class feature. You can search for an Arabic word that appears inside a screenshot and find the clip. Bilingual Arabic + English OCR in a clipboard manager is rare.
If they all use Apple Vision, why is Arabic OCR different here?
Apple's Vision framework can recognize Arabic, but only for the languages an app explicitly enables in its recognition request — the default is English-first. Most Mac clipboard managers never add Arabic to that list, and don't target Arabic-speaking users, so their screenshot search stays English-oriented in practice. Clipboard Doctor enables Arabic and English together by default, so a mixed Arabic–English screenshot is indexed in both scripts the moment you copy it — no setting to change.
Does it send my images anywhere to read the text?
No. OCR uses Apple's Vision framework and runs entirely on your Mac. Images are never uploaded — there's no account, no cloud, and nothing leaves your machine. You can verify with Little Snitch or any network monitor.
Will OCR on every copy slow down my Mac?
No. Vision offloads recognition to the Neural Engine on Apple Silicon, so it happens in the background without noticeable CPU load or fan spin. The app is a native SwiftUI menu-bar tool that sits idle between copies.
Do I need macOS 26 or Apple Intelligence for the OCR?
No. The OCR runs on-device with Apple's Vision framework and works on any Mac running macOS 13 (Ventura) or later — you don't need macOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple Intelligence, or an internet connection. Some newer clipboard tools gate their OCR or screenshot search on the latest macOS; Clipboard Doctor reads the text inside your screenshots, in Arabic and English, everywhere from macOS 13 up. See why it's offline & on-device.
Also see: search text inside screenshots · copy text from an image · Arabic clipboard manager · offline & private