7 Best Free Clipboard Managers for Windows (2026)

The best free clipboard manager for Windows is Ditto for most people: it's open source, keeps a searchable history that survives restarts, and needs almost no setup. Choose CopyQ if you want rules and scripting, and stay with the built-in Win+V history if you only reuse a few bits of text a day. The other free options below each solve a narrower job: paste cleanup, templates, format conversion, or dragging images and files.

Edge Drop is made by the team behind this site. It's listed for the one job it fits, with its limits stated like everyone else's.

The free options at a glance

Details come from each project's own site or documentation, checked in October 2026. No memory figures are quoted, because they vary by version and by what you copy.

1. Ditto: best free clipboard manager overall

Ditto saves everything you copy (text, images, HTML and custom formats) to a local database, so your history is still there after a restart. Press Ctrl+` (the backtick key), type a few letters to search, and press Enter to paste into the window you were using. You can also drag an entry out of the list.

Useful extras: groups for clips you keep, Shift+Enter to paste as plain text, rules that exclude copies from chosen programs, and optional sync between your own computers with encrypted network traffic. The project lists no login, no cloud and no telemetry. It installs from GitHub (installer or portable zip), the Microsoft Store, Chocolatey or winget install -e --id Ditto.Ditto.

The interface is a plain list. If you want automation, look at CopyQ.

2. CopyQ: best free tool for rules and scripting

CopyQ keeps text, HTML and images in tabs you can sort, edit, tag and drag between. Its strength is control: commands that run on a shortcut or whenever the clipboard changes, a command-line interface and scripting API, and rules that ignore copies from certain windows or containing certain text. By default it ignores content that password managers mark as secret.

It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, and on Windows comes as an installer, a portable zip, or via Scoop or Chocolatey. Expect to spend time in its settings before it feels right. Ditto vs CopyQ vs Win+V compares the two directly.

3. Windows clipboard history (Win+V): the free baseline

You may not need to install anything. Press Windows logo key + V and select Turn on, and Windows keeps your recent copies, lets you pin the ones you reuse, and can sync text to other PCs signed in to the same Microsoft or work account.

Microsoft documents its limits: 25 items, 4 MB per item, text, HTML and bitmap images only (no copied files), and unpinned items cleared on every restart. If those don't bother you, stop here. How to enable clipboard history in Windows 11 walks through setup.

4. ClipboardFusion Free: best for cleaning text as you copy

ClipboardFusion from Binary Fortress focuses on what you paste. The free edition includes clipboard history, local pinned items, image storage, custom-code macros, a list of applications to ignore, and basic triggers such as removing whitespace, stripping HTML tags, and match-and-replace.

Sync between computers, apps for other platforms and advanced triggers are in the paid Pro edition. It isn't open source. ClipboardFusion vs Ditto covers the trade-off.

5. Clipboard Master: best free suite for templates and hotkeys

Clipboard Master from Jumping Bytes stores up to 10,000 entries, including text, files and pictures, and adds text templates with date and name placeholders, a keystroke macro recorder (which the vendor still labels beta), a screenshot tool, a password safe, and more than 80 functions you can bind to hotkeys. It's free but not open source.

It suits people who want one install for several jobs. If you only want history, Ditto is simpler. Clipboard Master vs Ditto compares them.

6. PowerToys Advanced Paste: best free add-on for paste formats

Advanced Paste, part of Microsoft's free PowerToys, changes the format of what you paste rather than keeping a long history. Press Win+Shift+V to open its window, or Win+Ctrl+Alt+V to paste plain text directly. It can paste as Markdown, as JSON, or as a .txt, .html or .png file, and it extracts text from an image with local OCR. An Access Clipboard History setting lets you pick earlier items in its window.

AI transforms are off by default and need a provider you configure. Advanced Paste works alongside Win+V or any manager above; see whether PowerToys can replace a clipboard manager.

7. Edge Drop: best free tool for dragging images and files

Edge Drop is a shelf that slides out when your cursor touches the left, right or top edge of the screen, or when you press Alt+C. It records text, links, colours, images and files copied in File Explorer, keeps 250 unpinned items by default (100 to 1,000 selectable), and keeps history across restarts unless you turn on clearing.

What sets it apart is getting things out. Click any card to paste it into the app you were using, or drag an image or file out of Edge Drop into Explorer, a chat window or any app that accepts dropped files. Text and link cards are click-to-paste only. You can group up to 10 images or files into one stack. It has no telemetry, and its history index is encrypted with Windows DPAPI.

It has no sync, scripting, text expansion, OCR or export, and runs only on Windows 10 and 11 (x64). If you mostly search old text, Ditto is the better fit.

Other free tools you'll see recommended

• ArsClip is freeware with permanent clips, macros and mouse-triggered popups, but its page lists support only up to Windows 10. See ArsClip vs Ditto.
• ShareX is a free, open-source capture tool, not a clipboard history. Pair it with any manager above if screenshots are your main job.
• The Microsoft Office Clipboard holds up to 24 items you can paste inside Office apps. Open it from the Clipboard group on the Home tab. Its Options menu controls when it appears, for example Show Office Clipboard When CTRL+C Pressed Twice.

How to choose a free clipboard manager

1. Turn on Win+V and use it for a week. If it covers you, you're done.
2. Name the one job it fails at, and install the tool from the table for that job.
3. Run one clipboard history at a time. Two recorders mean two copies of everything you copy, including passwords. Turn off Win+V history once your new tool is set up; can you run two clipboard tools at once? explains the conflicts.
4. Check how it handles passwords before you rely on it.

FAQ

Is Ditto still free?

Yes. Ditto is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with no account or paid tier.

Is Windows clipboard history good enough?

For short, same-day text reuse, yes. It isn't if you need more than 25 items, history after a restart, copied files, or large images.

Which free clipboard manager works on Windows and Mac?

CopyQ runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. The other free tools here are Windows-only.

Related reading

• Best Clipboard Managers for Windows in 2026: 8 Compared
• Ditto vs CopyQ vs Win+V: Which Should You Use?
• Best Open-Source Clipboard Managers in 2026
• Do You Need a Clipboard Manager on Windows? A Quick Test

Sources

• Ditto (GitHub) and Ditto website — licence, formats, default shortcut, local-first policy, install options.
• Ditto project page (SourceForge) — search, drag and drop, sync between computers with encrypted network traffic.
• Ditto wiki — groups and Shift+Enter plain-text paste.
• CopyQ and CopyQ security — features, platforms, Windows install options, secret-content handling.
• Using the clipboard (Microsoft Support) — Win+V setup, limits, formats and sync.
• ClipboardFusion Free vs Pro — free and Pro features.
• Clipboard Master features — history size, templates, macro recorder, screenshot tool, password safe, hotkey functions.
• Advanced Paste (Microsoft Learn) — shortcuts, paste formats, OCR, AI settings.
• ShareX (GitHub) — licence and capture features.
• Copy and paste using the Office Clipboard (Microsoft Support) — 24 items, opening the pane, Options.

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How to Install Guide · First 10 Minutes Guide · Drag & Drop Guide · Edge Drop vs Win+V · Support