How to paste without formatting on Mac

Why formatting comes along

When you copy from a web page or a styled document, macOS copies the rich text — font, size, colour, links — not just the characters. A normal paste (⌘ V) drops all of that into your document, which is why pasted text often looks wrong.

Option 1 — Paste and Match Style (built in)

Many apps support Paste and Match Style, which strips the source formatting and matches your destination:

⌘ ⌥ ⇧ V

The catch: the exact shortcut varies, some apps omit the feature entirely, and it matches the destination style rather than giving true plain text. It is handy but inconsistent.

Option 2 — Maccy plain-text paste (reliable, anywhere)

Maccy stores what you copy and can paste any item as plain text, regardless of the app. Open your history with ⌘ ⇧ C, then:

• Hold ⌥ ⇧ and press Return on the item to paste it as plain text, or
• Hold ⌥ ⇧ while clicking the item.

Because Maccy does this itself, it works consistently across editors, mail, chat apps, and code editors — even where Paste and Match Style is missing. You can also set Maccy to remove formatting by default if you almost always want plain text.

Built-in vs Maccy

Bottom line

For a one-off, ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ V is fine where it works. For dependable plain-text pasting from anywhere — including older copies — Maccy is the better tool. See related how-tos like clearing clipboard history and the complete shortcuts guide.

The problem with formatted paste

When you copy text from a web page, PDF, or formatted document and paste it with ⌘V, the destination app receives the text with its original styling: font family, size, color, bold/italic state, and sometimes even background color. Pasting a Slack message into a Word document, for example, can change your document’s font mid-paragraph. This is called “rich paste” and it is the default macOS behavior.

Method 1: Maccy’s plain-text paste (fastest)

Maccy makes paste-without-formatting a first-class shortcut:

1. Open Maccy with ⌘⇧C
2. Select the item you want to paste
3. Press ⌘Return instead of just Return

This pastes the item as plain text only, stripping all fonts, colors, sizes, and HTML tags. The text adapts to whatever style is active in your destination app.

You can also set Maccy to always paste as plain text: Maccy Preferences → General → enable Paste as plain text by default. Then Return pastes plain text and Cmd+Return pastes rich text (the reverse of the default).

Method 2: Keyboard shortcut in the app

Most macOS apps support a native paste-without-formatting shortcut:

• Most apps (Pages, Word, Notes, etc.): ⌘⇧V
• Some apps (Notion, Obsidian): ⌥⇧⌘V
• Google Docs / browser-based editors: ⌘⇧V

If a shortcut doesn’t work in a specific app, try checking that app’s Edit menu for “Paste and Match Style” or “Paste as Plain Text.”

Method 3: Create a system-wide shortcut

Add ⌘⇧V as a system-wide “Paste and Match Style” shortcut:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts
2. Click +
3. Set Application to All Applications
4. Set Menu Title to: Paste and Match Style (exact spelling)
5. Set Keyboard Shortcut to ⌘⇧V

This makes plain-text paste work consistently across all apps that support the “Paste and Match Style” menu item.

Method 4: Use the Clean Paste tool

For pasting in a web browser without any keyboard shortcuts: the Clean Paste tool on this site strips formatting from any text you paste into it, giving you clean plain text to copy again.

Automating it with Apple Shortcuts

You can create a Shortcut that always strips formatting from whatever is on the clipboard:

1. In the Shortcuts app, create a new Shortcut
2. Add: Get Clipboard
3. Add: Make Text from (result) with “Make plain text”
4. Add: Set Clipboard to (result)

Assign a keyboard shortcut and run it to clean the clipboard before pasting. Maccy captures the cleaned version automatically.