Copying and pasting on a Chromebook works almost identically to Windows, using familiar keyboard shortcuts. Chromebooks also offer a clipboard manager that stores your recent copies, which is something most people do not know about.

Basic Copy and Paste Keyboard Shortcuts

• Copy: Ctrl + C
• Cut: Ctrl + X
• Paste: Ctrl + V
• Paste without formatting: Ctrl + Shift + V (pastes plain text, removes bold, fonts, and colours from copied content)
• Select all: Ctrl + A (then Ctrl + C to copy everything)
• Undo: Ctrl + Z

How to Copy and Paste Using the Touchpad

If you prefer not to use keyboard shortcuts:

1. Highlight text by clicking and dragging with one finger on the touchpad.
2. To right-click on a Chromebook touchpad, tap with two fingers simultaneously.
3. Select Copy from the context menu.
4. Move your cursor to the destination, two-finger tap again, and select Paste.

How to Copy and Paste on a Touchscreen Chromebook

1. Press and hold on the word or text you want to select until selection handles appear.
2. Drag the handles to expand or shrink the selection.
3. Tap Copy from the toolbar that appears above the selection.
4. Tap where you want to paste, then tap Paste from the toolbar.

Using the Chromebook Clipboard Manager

ChromeOS includes a clipboard history that saves your last five copied items. This is extremely useful when you need to paste multiple different things.

1. Press Launcher + V (the Launcher key is the circle key at the bottom left of the keyboard, also called the Search key).
2. A panel appears showing your recent clipboard items.
3. Click any item to paste it immediately.

The clipboard history stores text, links, and images. It clears when you restart your Chromebook.

How to Copy and Paste Files and Images

To copy a file in the Files app:

1. Click the file to select it.
2. Press Ctrl + C to copy (or right-click / two-finger tap and choose Copy).
3. Navigate to the destination folder.
4. Press Ctrl + V to paste.

To copy an image from a webpage, two-finger tap on it and choose Copy image. You can then paste it directly into Google Docs or another app with Ctrl + V.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is paste not working on my Chromebook?

Make sure you have actually copied something first (Ctrl + C). Some websites and apps block paste for security reasons (password fields, banking sites). If paste is blocked in a browser input, try right-clicking and selecting Paste instead of using the keyboard shortcut.

How do I copy text from a PDF on Chromebook?

Open the PDF in the Chrome browser or Files app. Click and drag to select text, then press Ctrl + C. If the PDF is a scanned image, the text is not selectable – you will need an OCR tool to extract it.

Is there a paste without formatting shortcut on Chromebook?

Yes. Ctrl + Shift + V pastes plain text without any formatting. This is useful when copying from a webpage and pasting into a document where you do not want to carry over the source styling.