PowerToys Advanced Paste AI: Set Up Ollama or OpenAI

To use AI in PowerToys Advanced Paste, open PowerToys Settings, go to Advanced Paste, turn on Paste with AI, and add a provider under Model providers with Add model. Pick Ollama, Foundry Local or Phi Silica if you want the model to run on your PC, so your clipboard text never leaves it. Pick OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Google or Azure AI Inference for a cloud model; you'll need an API key and paid credits, and your clipboard text and prompt are sent to that provider.

What works without AI

Most of Advanced Paste doesn't use AI at all, and those actions always run on your PC:

If all you want is clean, unformatted paste, you don't need a model. How to paste without formatting on Windows covers that and other methods, and how to use PowerToys Advanced Paste covers the setup and every non-AI action.

Local or cloud: which provider to pick

Local providers keep the text on your PC and work offline, but answers depend on the model you choose and your hardware, and large models can be slow on a laptop. Cloud providers are usually faster and stronger, but every AI request sends the clipboard text and your prompt to the provider, and you pay per use.

A useful rule: if you wouldn't paste the text into that provider's chat website, don't send it through Paste with AI either. For a one-off question, pasting into Copilot may be simpler than configuring a provider; see how to use Copilot with your clipboard. That includes API keys, passwords, customer data and code from private repositories.

Set up Advanced Paste with Ollama (local)

1. Install PowerToys if you haven't already, and make sure Advanced Paste is turned on in PowerToys Settings.
2. Download and run OllamaSetup.exe from Ollama's website. Ollama supports Windows 10 22H2 or newer and runs in the background after installation.
3. Open a terminal and download a model with ollama pull, for example ollama pull gemma4 (the model Ollama's own documentation uses as its example).
4. Check that it's installed with ollama ls.
5. In PowerToys Settings, open Advanced Paste and turn on Paste with AI.
6. Under Model providers, select Add model.
7. In the Paste with AI provider configuration window, choose Ollama, pick the model from the options shown and select Save.
8. If you have more than one provider, open the provider's menu in the Model providers list and set it as the default.

To test it, copy a paragraph, press Win+Shift+V, type an instruction such as "summarise in one sentence" in the AI box and press Enter. With Custom format preview on (the default), you see the result before it's pasted.

Ollama serves its API at http://localhost:11434 and keeps models under %HOMEPATH%\.ollama, so nothing in this setup sends your text off the PC.

Set up Advanced Paste with Foundry Local (local)

Foundry Local is Microsoft's local model runtime. It's in preview.

1. Install it from a terminal with winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal.
2. Run foundry model list to see the available models. The first run also downloads the right acceleration components for your hardware.
3. Download a model with foundry model download <model>, using an alias from the list.
4. Check the local service with foundry server status, and start it with foundry server start if it isn't running.
5. Restart PowerToys, as Microsoft's instructions say to after installing the Foundry Local CLI.
6. In Advanced Paste, turn on Paste with AI, select Add model, choose Foundry Local, pick your model and select Save. If the list is empty, refresh it once the service is running.

Set up Advanced Paste with OpenAI (cloud)

1. Create an API key in your OpenAI account and add credits. Advanced Paste shows an API key quota exceeded error when the account has none.
2. In Advanced Paste, turn on Paste with AI and select Add model.
3. Choose OpenAI, enter the Model name and your API key, and select Save.

OpenAI is also the only provider that supports Advanced Paste's multi-step AI requests (built on Semantic Kernel), such as "turn this image into text, translate it to French and save it as a .txt file".

On data use: OpenAI says content sent through its API isn't used to train its models unless you opt in, but it may keep abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days. Other providers have their own terms; check them before you add a key.

Built-in AI actions and custom actions

Once Paste with AI is on, you get:

• The AI box in the Advanced Paste window, where you type a one-off instruction. You can hide it with Show the AI paste input box.
• Fix spelling and grammar, a built-in AI action with its own optional shortcut, model and prompt. Coaching mode explains what changed.
• Custom actions: saved prompts, each with a name, an optional shortcut and an optional model override.

The model override is useful for privacy. You can set a cloud model as the default for general writing and point a custom action you use on work text at Ollama, or the other way round.

Clipboard history in Advanced Paste

The Access Clipboard History setting lets you show and select previously copied items from inside the Advanced Paste window. Advanced Paste transforms what you paste; it isn't a clipboard manager. Can PowerToys replace a clipboard manager? and Edge Drop vs PowerToys Advanced Paste cover what it does and doesn't replace.

FAQ

Is PowerToys Advanced Paste AI free?

PowerToys is free. Local providers (Ollama, Foundry Local, Phi Silica) cost nothing to use. Online providers charge for API usage, and you need credits in your account.

Does Advanced Paste send my clipboard to Microsoft?

Not for its non-AI actions, which run locally. For Paste with AI, Microsoft's documentation says the clipboard text and prompt go to the provider you selected, so they go to Microsoft only if you choose a Microsoft cloud service such as Azure OpenAI.

Why does Win+Shift+V open Advanced Paste instead of something else?

Win+Shift+V is Advanced Paste's default activation shortcut. Change it under Open Advanced Paste window in its settings if it clashes with another app.

Can I use Claude or another provider not in the list?

The documented providers are OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Google, Azure AI Inference, Foundry Local, Ollama and Phi Silica. AI clipboard managers: which keep your data local? compares other AI clipboard tools.

Related reading

• AI Clipboard Managers: Which Keep Your Data Local?
• Can PowerToys Replace a Clipboard Manager?
• PowerToys Advanced Paste vs a Clipboard Manager
• How to Paste Without Formatting on Windows

Sources

• Advanced Paste (Microsoft Learn) — settings, shortcuts, actions, providers, adding a model and what is sent.
• Install PowerToys (Microsoft Learn) — installation options.
• Ollama on Windows (Ollama docs) — requirements, installer, API address and model folder.
• Ollama CLI reference (Ollama docs) — ollama pull and ollama ls.
• Foundry Local CLI reference (Microsoft Learn) — install, model and server commands.
• Your data (OpenAI API docs) — training opt-in and retention.

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