How to paste without formatting on a Mac

The shortcut: Paste and Match Style

To paste without formatting on Mac, press ⌥ ⇧ ⌘ V (Option-Shift-Command-V). Apple calls this Paste and Match Style. The text arrives as plain words and takes on the font, size and color around your cursor, as if you’d typed it yourself.

You’ll also find the command in the Edit menu of most apps, just below Paste. If you’d rather click than press four keys, that’s the place to look.

Why formatting comes along when you paste

When you copy text, macOS doesn’t store just the words. The app you copied from usually puts several versions on the clipboard at once: plain text, plus rich text or HTML with fonts, colors, links and sometimes background highlighting. When you paste, the receiving app picks the richest version it understands.

That’s why a quote from a website lands in your email in a different typeface, or a line from a PDF arrives in a strange size. It can also carry things you can’t see at a glance, like a link hidden behind a word or a faint background color behind the text. Paste and Match Style tells the app to use the plain-text version instead.

Paste without formatting in each app

Apple apps: Pages, Keynote, Notes and Mail

Apple’s own apps all use the same command, so one shortcut covers them. In Mail, it’s especially useful when you’re quoting part of a web page or another email and want your reply to look like one message rather than a collage.

Google Docs and Gmail

Google Docs has its own command: Edit → Paste without formatting, or ⌘ ⇧ V. It works the same in Safari and Chrome because Docs handles the shortcut itself. In Gmail, the browser’s Paste and Match Style works, and the Remove formatting button in the compose toolbar cleans up anything that slipped through.

Microsoft Word for Mac

Word gives you a few routes. After a normal paste, click the small Paste Options button that appears next to the text and choose Keep Text Only. Or use Edit → Paste Special and pick Unformatted Text. In current Microsoft 365 versions, ⌘ ⇧ V pastes text only. Word’s Edit menu also has Paste and Match Formatting, which blends the text into the surrounding style.

Google Sheets and other spreadsheets

Pasting a table from a web page into a spreadsheet usually drags along fonts, fill colors and borders. In Google Sheets, ⌘ ⇧ V pastes values only, so the numbers and text arrive in your sheet’s own style. In Numbers, use Edit → Paste and Match Style, just as in Pages.

Slack, Notion and other desktop apps built on the web

Many popular desktop apps are built with web technology, and their behavior varies. Check the Edit menu first. If there’s no plain-text option there, try ⌘ ⇧ V, which many web-based editors accept. If neither works, use one of the workarounds below.

When Paste and Match Style isn’t available

Some apps don’t offer it at all: the command is missing or grayed out. These workarounds strip formatting before you paste.

1. The TextEdit plain-text trick. Open TextEdit, create a new document and choose Format → Make Plain Text (⇧ ⌘ T). Paste your text, select all, and copy it again. The clipboard now holds only plain text, and you can paste it anywhere with a regular ⌘ V.
2. Make TextEdit plain by default. In TextEdit → Settings → New Document, choose Plain text. Every new document is then a ready-made formatting scrubber.
3. Use Terminal. If you’re comfortable there, run pbpaste | pbcopy. It reads the clipboard as plain text and writes it straight back, leaving the formatting behind.
4. Use a plain field. For a single line, paste into any plain-text box, like Spotlight’s search field, then select it and copy it again. Line breaks won’t survive, but the formatting won’t either.

Make paste without formatting the default

If you almost never want formatting, you can make plain text the normal behavior instead of something you remember to ask for.

Everywhere that offers Paste and Match Style

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard and click Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Choose App Shortcuts, then click the Add button (+).
3. Leave Application set to All Applications.
4. For Menu title, type Paste and Match Style exactly as it appears in the Edit menu.
5. Click Keyboard shortcut, press ⌘ V, and click Done.

Now ⌘ V pastes without formatting in every app whose Edit menu has that exact command. The trade-off: in those apps, a regular formatted paste no longer has a shortcut, so you’ll use Edit → Paste when you do want it. Apps that name the command differently aren’t affected.

App by app

• Mail: in Mail → Settings → Composing, set Message format to Plain Text, and new messages won’t carry formatting at all.
• TextEdit: set new documents to Plain text, as above.
• Word for Mac: you can reassign shortcuts under Tools → Customize Keyboard if you want a text-only paste on a key you already use.
• Google Docs: there’s no setting, so ⌘ ⇧ V is the habit to build.

Snippets that always paste as plain text

Much of what people paste every day isn’t from the web at all. It’s their own details: a portfolio link, a calendar link, an email signature line, an address, account numbers. Those often live in a note or a doc, and they bring that document’s formatting along each time you copy them.

OnePaste always pastes plain text. Save those details once, then in any app double-tap ⌥ ⌥, type a few letters, and press Return. The text lands next to your cursor in whatever style you’re already typing in, whether that’s Mail, Pages, Google Docs in Chrome, Slack or Notion. Whatever you had on your clipboard is restored afterward, so it doesn’t interfere with your next paste.

It’s a good fit for anyone who pastes the same answers and links into lots of different tools, like customer support teams moving between chat, email and help desks. See everything OnePaste does.

For the basics of moving text around, read how to copy and paste on Mac. And if you mostly need a few short phrases, macOS text replacements also insert plain text and cost nothing to set up.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shortcut to paste without formatting on a Mac?

Option-Shift-Command-V (⌥⇧⌘V), which Apple calls Paste and Match Style. It works in most Apple apps and in web editors in Safari and Chrome; Google Docs uses Command-Shift-V (⌘⇧V).

Why doesn’t Option-Shift-Command-V work in my app?

That app doesn’t offer Paste and Match Style under that name. Check its Edit menu for a similar command, try ⌘⇧V, or paste into a plain-text TextEdit document and copy it again.

How do I remove formatting from text I’ve already pasted?

Select the text and use the app’s clear formatting command. In Google Docs and Gmail it’s Command-Backslash (⌘\); in other apps, reapply the document’s normal text style.

Can I make Command-V always paste without formatting on Mac?

Yes, in apps that use the Paste and Match Style command. In System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts, add a shortcut for All Applications with the menu title “Paste and Match Style” and press ⌘V.

Does pasting without formatting remove links?

In most apps, yes. Plain-text pasting keeps the words but drops styling and hyperlinks, so a linked phrase becomes ordinary text. Paste the full URL if you need the link to survive.

Does OnePaste paste with formatting?

No. OnePaste always pastes plain text, so saved links, addresses and details take on the style of whatever you’re typing in.