What is the paste without formatting shortcut on Mac?

Cmd+Shift+V (Paste and Match Style) pastes text without its original formatting in most Mac apps. Some apps use Cmd+Option+Shift+V instead.

Why does Cmd+Shift+V not work in some apps?

Apps like Microsoft Word and Google Docs use Cmd+Option+Shift+V. Check the app's Edit menu for the exact Paste and Match Style shortcut.

How is paste-plain-text different from cleaning a clip?

Paste and Match Style strips styling and matches the destination. An AI clean transform goes further, removing stray whitespace, line breaks, and invisible characters from the text itself.

Can a clipboard manager strip formatting automatically?

Yes. ClipHistory saves every copy and can run a clean transform on any clip using your own AI provider key before you paste.

Paste Without Formatting on Mac: The Shortcut

Copy text from a web page or a styled document and paste it, and it usually arrives with fonts, colors, and sizes that clash with where you put it. The fix is a single shortcut.

The shortcut

Cmd+Shift+V   →   Paste and Match Style

This pastes the copied text as plain text that adopts the formatting of the destination instead of carrying its original styling. It works in most native macOS apps, including Pages, Notes, Mail, and Keynote.

When the shortcut is different

Some apps use a different combination. The most common alternative is:

Cmd+Option+Shift+V

Microsoft Word, Google Docs in Chrome, and a few others use this longer form. If Cmd+Shift+V does not strip formatting in a given app, check that app's Edit menu — the exact label and shortcut for "Paste and Match Style" or "Paste Without Formatting" is listed there.

Why formatting tags along

When you copy, macOS often stores several versions of the same selection at once — plain text, rich text (RTF), and HTML. A normal paste (Cmd+V) lets the destination app pick the richest version it understands, which is why styling carries over. Paste-and-match-style tells the app to use the plain-text version and apply local formatting instead.

A faster habit for messy text

If you find yourself stripping formatting constantly, two approaches help.

Always paste clean

Train your fingers to use Cmd+Shift+V by default whenever you paste text into a document. Most of the time matched style is what you actually want.

Clean clips at the source

A clipboard manager can clean text before you paste it. With ClipHistory, every copy is saved to a searchable history (your last 150 unpinned clips, plus unlimited pinned), and you can run an AI clean transform on any clip to strip stray formatting, whitespace, and artifacts.

The clean transform — along with summarize, rewrite, and translate — runs through your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom provider. Your clips and the cleaning happen on your terms.

Step by step with a clipboard manager

Copy the messy text as usual.
Press Cmd+Shift+V to open ClipHistory.
Pick the clip, run the clean transform if you want a deeper cleanup, then paste.

For one-off pastes, the native Cmd+Shift+V (Paste and Match Style) is all you need. For text that needs real cleaning — odd line breaks, invisible characters, leftover markup — an AI clean transform goes further than match-style alone.

Recap

Cmd+Shift+V pastes without formatting in most Mac apps.
Cmd+Option+Shift+V is the variation in Word, Google Docs, and a few others.
Check the Edit menu to confirm the shortcut per app.
A clipboard manager can clean clips before you paste them.

ClipHistory keeps your clipboard history locally — no cloud, no account — and is a one-time $19.99 purchase (12-month license, no auto-renewal), signed and notarized by Apple, on macOS 12+ for Apple Silicon and Intel. Get ClipHistory for macOS.