Does ClipHistory live in the menu bar?

Yes. ClipHistory adds a menu bar icon you can click to view recent clips, and it also opens with the Cmd+Shift+V keyboard shortcut from any app.

Can I open clipboard history without the mouse?

Yes. Press Cmd+Shift+V to open the history panel, type to filter, and press Enter to paste — no clicking required.

How many clips does the menu bar app keep?

It keeps your last 150 unpinned clips plus unlimited pinned clips that never age out.

Does a menu bar clipboard app slow down my Mac?

ClipHistory is a lightweight native universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, designed to run quietly in the background on macOS 12 and later.

Clipboard History Menu Bar App for Mac

A menu bar clipboard app sits quietly at the top of your screen and remembers everything you copy. Instead of losing each item the moment you copy the next one, you get a list you can open from the menu bar — or, faster, from a keyboard shortcut.

What a Menu Bar Clipboard App Does

macOS keeps only your last copy. A menu bar clipboard manager adds a small icon to the menu bar and records each Cmd+C into a history. Click the icon, see your recent clips, pick one, and it pastes. The menu bar gives you a visible, always-available home for the feature without taking up window space.

ClipHistory works exactly this way and adds a global shortcut so you rarely need to reach for the mouse.

Two Ways to Open Your History

From the menu bar — click the ClipHistory icon to see your recent clips at a glance.
From the keyboard — press Cmd+Shift+V anywhere to open the history panel over your current app.

The keyboard route is the one you'll use most. Press it, type to filter, press Enter to paste. The menu bar icon is there when you'd rather click.

What Gets Stored

ClipHistory records your last 150 unpinned clips of:

Text and code
Links and email addresses
Images
Rich text with formatting

Items you want to keep — passwords managers aside, things like signatures, addresses, or snippets — can be pinned, and pinned clips are unlimited and never expire out of the rolling 150.

More Than a List

A good menu bar app does more than show history:

Snippets

Save text you reuse constantly and paste it in a keystroke. Email replies, boilerplate, your shipping address — all one search away.

Boards

Group related clips into boards for a specific project, so a set of assets stays together instead of scattering through the timeline.

Paste Stack

Queue several clips and paste them in sequence with repeated presses — ideal for forms and templates.

AI Transforms

Summarize, rewrite, translate, or clean a clip before pasting. These run on your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom provider. You choose the provider; the app just calls it.

Local and Notarized

Everything ClipHistory stores stays on your Mac — no cloud, no account, no sign-up. The app is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens cleanly through Gatekeeper, and it's a universal binary that runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 12 or later.

Setting It Up

Download ClipHistory and open it once.
macOS verifies the notarized signature and launches it; the icon appears in your menu bar.
Grant accessibility permission so it can paste into other apps.
Copy as usual — history builds automatically, and Cmd+Shift+V is ready whenever you need it.

A menu bar clipboard app is one of those tools you forget is there until you reach for an old copy and it's waiting for you.

Stop losing what you copy. ClipHistory keeps your last 150 clips (plus unlimited pinned ones) right under Cmd+Shift+V, with AI transforms that run on your own API key and never leave your Mac. Get ClipHistory for macOS — $19.99, one-time