Paste without formatting on Mac

You copy a sentence from a website and paste it into an email — suddenly it's blue, 18pt, and in a completely different font. Sound familiar? Here's how to fix that forever.

The shortcut

Shift + Option + Cmd + V — pastes as plain text in most Mac apps (Pages, Mail, Notes, Notion, Google Docs, etc.).

If that doesn't work in a specific app, look for Edit > Paste and Match Style in the menu bar.

Make it the default (permanently)

You can rewire Cmd + V itself to always paste without formatting:

1. Open System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > App Shortcuts
2. Click + to add a new shortcut
3. Application: All Applications
4. Menu Title: type exactly Paste and Match Style
5. Shortcut: press Cmd + V
6. Click Done

Now every Cmd + V across your Mac pastes plain text. The old formatted paste moves to Shift + Option + Cmd + V (reversed!).

Where it works

When you actually want formatting

Occasionally you do want to keep formatting (e.g., copying styled text between Pages documents). In that case, use Edit > Paste or temporarily disable the system shortcut override.