Mac clipboard managers compared (2026)
A fair side-by-side of the clipboard managers people actually consider on macOS in 2026 — by price, whether they can search text inside screenshots, Arabic support, and whether your history ever leaves the Mac. Each one is good at something; this is meant to help you pick, not to sell.
Short version: Want free and open-source for text and code? Maccy. Need your clipboard on iPhone and iPad too? Paste. Already live in a launcher? Raycast. Want to search the text inside screenshots — in Arabic and English — for free and fully offline? Clipboard Doctor.
The comparison table
| App | Price | Search text in screenshots | Arabic OCR | Fully offline / no account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clipboard Doctor | Free | Yes — on-device | Yes | Yes |
| Maccy | Free (open source) | No | No | Yes |
| Paste | $29.99 / year | Yes (v4.4+) | Not documented | No — iCloud sync, Apple ID |
| Raycast | Free · Pro $8 / mo | No | No | Yes (3-month free cap) |
| Maus | Free · Pro $12.99 | Yes — on-device | Inherited, not marketed | Yes (24h free history) |
| PasteBar | Free (open source) | No | No | Yes |
| Pastery | Subscription | Yes — on-device | English-focused | Account required |
| Clipory | $7 one-time (OCR in Pro) | Yes — Pro | English-focused | Yes |
Prices and free-tier limits are as observed in 2026 and can change — check each app's own site before buying. If you spot something out of date, email [email protected] and it gets fixed.
What each one is best at
Maccy — free, open source, text-first
MIT-licensed, around since 2019, on the Mac App Store. If your clipboard use is entirely text and code and you value being able to read the source, Maccy is a great pick. It has no image history and no OCR. Full comparison →
Paste — the cross-device one
The most polished option and the only one that syncs your clipboard across Mac, iPhone and iPad. That sync runs through iCloud and needs an Apple ID, at $29.99/year. If multi-device is the point, nothing else here matches it. Full comparison →
Raycast — if you already use the launcher
Raycast is an excellent Spotlight replacement, and its built-in clipboard history is a nice bonus — but the free tier drops history after 3 months and there's no OCR. Great as part of a launcher workflow; a dedicated clipboard tool goes further. Full comparison →
Maus — OCR with a cursor-following paste
A native Swift app with on-device OCR and a slick cursor-anchored multipaste. Its catch is the free tier: history expires after 24 hours, and unlimited costs $12.99. If multipaste is your priority it earns that. Full comparison →
PasteBar — free and cross-platform
Free, open source, and runs on Windows too. It stores images but does not run OCR, so you can't search the text inside a screenshot. Good for a simple, inspectable, cross-platform history. Full comparison →
Pastery & Clipory — paid OCR options
Both add screenshot OCR via Apple Vision. Pastery is a subscription with text transforms and app filters; Clipory asks a fair one-time $7 for its Pro OCR. Both are English-focused. vs Pastery → · vs Clipory →
Clipboard Doctor — free OCR, Arabic + English, offline
The moment you copy a screenshot, Clipboard Doctor runs Apple's Vision OCR on-device and indexes the recognized text — so later you can search "invoice" or "فاتورة" and find the image by what's inside it. It's free, keeps unlimited history, requires no account, and makes no network connections. It's the only app in this list that enables Arabic and English OCR together.
Download Clipboard Doctor — freemacOS 13+ · 2-minute install guide
How to choose
Two questions settle it for most people. First: do you copy screenshots and wish you could find them later by the words inside them? If no, a text-only manager like Maccy is plenty. If yes, you want OCR — which narrows it to Clipboard Doctor, Maus, Pastery, Clipory or Paste. Second: do you want to pay nothing and keep everything offline? That points to Clipboard Doctor, which does on-device OCR — including Arabic — for free with no account.
Questions
What's the best free clipboard manager for Mac?
For text and code, Maccy — free and open source. If you also copy screenshots and want the text inside them searchable, or you work in Arabic, Clipboard Doctor is free and adds on-device OCR. PasteBar is another free option, but it stores images without OCR.
Which ones can actually search inside screenshots?
Clipboard Doctor, Maus, Pastery, Clipory and Paste (v4.4+) run OCR. Maccy, Raycast and PasteBar do not. Of the OCR apps, Clipboard Doctor is the free one that also reads Arabic.
Which stays fully offline with no account?
Maccy, PasteBar, Raycast's clipboard, Maus and Clipboard Doctor all keep history local without an account. Paste syncs through iCloud and needs an Apple ID. Clipboard Doctor makes zero outbound connections in normal use — verifiable with Little Snitch.
Is this list biased toward Clipboard Doctor?
Clipboard Doctor is made by rawag.xyz, so treat the recommendation with that in mind — but the table is factual and the competitor strengths are real. If Maccy, Paste or Raycast fits you better, use them; they're named here for exactly that reason.
Also see: search text inside screenshots · Arabic clipboard manager · offline & private