How-to

How to copy and paste multiple items at once on a Mac

Q: Can you copy multiple things at once on a Mac?

Not with Command-C alone, which replaces whatever was copied before. On macOS 26 and later, Spotlight's clipboard history keeps recent copies so you can bring them back one at a time. A clipboard manager such as CopyPal keeps everything and can paste several items together.

Q: How do I paste several items at once on a Mac?

In CopyPal, press Shift-Command-V, select each item and press Command-S to add it to the paste stack, then press Return. The items are pasted together, joined by a line break, blank line, space, tab or comma.

Q: How do I copy multiple files at once on a Mac?

In Finder, Command-click each file, press Command-C, then open the destination folder and press Command-V. Press Option-Command-V instead to move the files rather than copy them.

By the CopyPal team · Updated 2 October 2026 · 7 min read

Copy, switch apps, paste, switch back, copy the next thing. If you have ever moved five pieces of information from one document to another, you know the dance. macOS gives you one clipboard slot and no multi-copy button. Here are five ways to copy multiple things and paste them together, from what is built into your Mac to the tools that make it a non-issue.

Method 1: Spotlight's clipboard history (macOS 26 and later)

Since macOS 26 Tahoe, your Mac can remember more than the last copy. Turn it on in System Settings › Spotlight › Results from Clipboard, then copy your items as usual. When you need an earlier one:

Click where the item should go.
Press ⌘Space, then ⌘4 to see your recent copies.
Select the one you want and press Return to paste it. Repeat for the next item.

It is free and already on your Mac, but it brings items back one at a time, keeps them for 30 minutes, 8 hours or 7 days, and is not there before macOS 26. Our guide to macOS clipboard history walks through every setting.

Method 2: the old workarounds

Use a scratch note. Open Notes or TextEdit next to your source, copy each item and paste it into the note in turn, then copy the whole note at the end. It works. It also means every batch costs you a dozen extra keystrokes and a note you have to clean up afterwards.

Drag and drop text. Select text, then drag it into another window. For two visible windows this is quicker than copying, and it does not touch the clipboard at all. It falls apart as soon as the destination is in another Space or behind something.

Use the Spike in Word. Microsoft Word has a multi-cut clipboard of its own. Select a passage and press ⌘F3 to send it to the Spike, repeat for each passage, then press ⌘⇧F3 to paste them all together. It cuts rather than copies, and it only works inside Word. You may need to hold fn to use F3.

All three share the same weakness: none of them helps across apps once you copy something else. That is the problem a clipboard manager solves.

Method 3: a paste stack

With CopyPal installed, every copy you make is kept, so "copy multiple items" becomes "copy them like you always do". The paste stack then takes care of the pasting.

Copy each item as usual. Five things, ten things, it does not matter.
Press ⇧⌘V to open the panel where you want to paste.
Select each item you want and press ⌘S, or simply ⌘-click it. A banner shows "3 in stack" and the chosen rows get a tick.
Press ↩ to paste them all at once, in the order you picked them.

The CopyPal panel with three items selected for the paste stack, ready to be pasted together into Google Chrome — Command-click the items you want, then press Return to paste them together.

What goes between the items is up to you. In Settings under Pasting, choose a line break, a blank line, a space, a tab or a comma. Tabs are handy for dropping several values into a spreadsheet row in one go.

Prefer to place each item yourself? Press ⌘↩ instead. The first item is pasted immediately, and every following ⌘V pastes the next one in line, so you can hop between form fields and paste, paste, paste without opening the panel again.

Method 4: quick paste with ⌘1 to ⌘9

For the last few things you copied there is an even shorter route. Open the panel and press ⌘1 to paste the newest item, ⌘2 for the one before, and so on up to ⌘9. The numbers sit next to each row, so you never have to count. This is the fastest way to alternate between two or three things you copied a minute ago.

Method 5: snippets for what you type every day

Some things you paste are not really clips. They are the same email signature, the same address, the same "thanks for reaching out" opener, day after day. Turn those into snippets. Select the item in CopyPal, type a short keyword such as ;sig into the Snippet keyword field and press Return. From then on, typing ;sig in any app, Mail, Slack, a web form, replaces it with the full text.

CopyPal with an email signature selected and the snippet keyword ;sig saved, with the message that typing it in any app pastes the signature — Give any text a keyword. Type it anywhere and the full text appears.

Bonus: name and file the things you reuse

Once you keep everything, finding the right item matters. Two small features help. You can give any item a name, so a long address shows up in the list as "Venue address" instead of the first line of the street. And you can save items to groups such as Design or Research, which keep them out of the way until you need them and safe from being trimmed by the history limit.

An address in CopyPal named Venue address, shown in bold in the list with the name field filled in on the right — A custom name shows in the list instead of the text, and it is searchable.

Copying multiple files is a different job

If you meant files rather than text, Finder already does it. ⌘-click each file, press ⌘C, open the destination folder and press ⌘V. Press ⌥⌘V instead to move the files rather than copy them. Clipboard managers are about the text, links, images and screenshots you copy inside apps.

Shortcut recap

Shortcut	What it does
`⌘Space` then `⌘4`	Open Spotlight's clipboard history (macOS 26 and later)
`⇧⌘V`	Open the CopyPal panel
`⌘S` or `⌘`-click	Add an item to the paste stack
`↩` with a stack	Paste every stacked item at once
`⌘↩` with a stack	Paste them one by one, one per `⌘V`
`⌘1` to `⌘9`	Paste one of the nine most recent items
`⇧↩`	Paste as plain text

Frequently asked questions

Can you copy multiple things at once on a Mac?

Not with ⌘C alone, which replaces whatever was copied before. On macOS 26 and later, Spotlight's clipboard history keeps recent copies so you can bring them back one at a time. A clipboard manager such as CopyPal keeps everything and can paste several items together.

Is there a multi copy and paste on a Mac?

Not built in. Spotlight's clipboard history, on macOS 26 and later, lets you bring earlier items back one at a time. For a real multi-copy, multi-paste, use a clipboard manager with a paste stack: CopyPal pastes several items at once with ↩, or one per ⌘V with ⌘↩.

How do I paste several items at once on a Mac?

In CopyPal, press ⇧⌘V, select each item and press ⌘S to add it to the paste stack, then press ↩. The items are pasted together, joined by a line break, blank line, space, tab or comma.

How do I copy multiple files at once on a Mac?

In Finder, ⌘-click each file, press ⌘C, then open the destination folder and press ⌘V. Press ⌥⌘V instead to move the files rather than copy them.