How to Paste Without Formatting on Mac (4 Ways)

Why formatting comes along when you paste

When you copy text from a webpage, a Google Doc, an email, or a PDF, macOS copies two things: the plain text characters, and a rich-text version that includes fonts, sizes, colours, spacing, and hyperlinks. Most apps prefer the rich version when you paste — which is why text from a website arrives in your document looking like it came from a website.

Stripping that formatting before pasting is one of the most common small frustrations in daily Mac use. There are four practical ways to handle it, from a built-in keyboard shortcut to a clipboard manager that removes formatting in one click.

Method 1: Paste and Match Style (⌘⇧⌥V)

Most apps that handle rich text include a Paste and Match Style option in the Edit menu (some call it Paste and Match Formatting). The keyboard shortcut is ⌘⇧⌥V in most apps — Pages, Keynote, Mail, Notes, TextEdit in rich text mode, Google Docs (web), and many others.

This pastes the plain text content only, matching the formatting of wherever your cursor is. The result looks like it was typed directly — no foreign fonts, no inherited colours, no hyperlinks bleeding through.

The limitation: the shortcut varies by app. Pages and Keynote use ⌘⇧⌥V. Some apps don't have this option at all. If you paste into a plain-text editor (VS Code, Terminal, a code editor), ⌘V already pastes plain text because those apps don't understand rich text — the shortcut isn't needed there.

Method 2: Remap ⌘V system-wide to always paste plain text

If you almost never want rich text when pasting, you can reassign ⌘V to Paste and Match Style across all apps using macOS keyboard shortcuts. This means pressing the standard paste shortcut always strips formatting.

Here's how:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts
2. Click + to add a shortcut
3. In Application, choose All Applications
4. In Menu Title, type exactly: Paste and Match Style
5. Set the shortcut to ⌘V
6. Add a second entry with Menu Title Paste and Match Formatting (used by some apps) and assign ⌘V to that as well

From that point, ⌘V pastes plain text everywhere the option exists. Apps that don't have a "Paste and Match Style" option — mostly plain-text editors — already paste without formatting and are unaffected.

The caveat: you'll lose easy access to the original rich-text paste when you occasionally do want it (a table copied from Excel, say). In those cases, go to Edit → Paste to get the formatted version.

Method 3: Route through TextEdit as a plain-text middleman

Open TextEdit, switch it to plain text mode (Format → Make Plain Text or use TextEdit in plain text mode by default via Preferences), paste your content there, then copy it again. Everything except the text characters is stripped.

This works 100% of the time, but it's slow — three extra steps every time. It's worth knowing as a fallback for apps that don't support Paste and Match Style, but it's too cumbersome to rely on daily.

Method 4: Use a clipboard manager with a strip-formatting transform

The cleanest daily solution is a clipboard manager that handles this at the paste step. Pastery includes a Strip HTML / Plain Text transform you can apply before pasting: hover any text clip, click the transform button, and Pastery pastes the plain text version. No menu diving, no routing through a middleman app.

The broader benefit: once you have a clipboard manager running, your entire clipboard history is searchable. You can find something you copied three days ago, apply a transform, and paste it — all without leaving whatever you're working on. Read more about accessing clipboard history on Mac or see how the JSON formatter works.

Pastery's 14-day trial is free and requires no credit card. If you strip formatting multiple times a day, it's worth trying.

Comparison: which method to use

For most people, the best approach is to learn ⌘⇧⌥V and add the system-wide remap if you want ⌘V to always paste plain text. If you find yourself stripping formatting constantly across many apps, a clipboard manager like Pastery makes it genuinely frictionless.

Frequently asked questions