How to sync your clipboard between Mac and Windows

A Mac at home and a Windows PC at work is an extremely common setup, and neither platform will carry a copied link across for you. Here is why the built-in features stop where they do, and how the three cross-platform clipboard managers compare in 2026.

Why the built-in features do not help

Windows cloud clipboard (Win+V) keeps a history and can sync it, but only between Windows PCs signed in to the same Microsoft account. A Mac is not part of that circle.

Apple's Universal Clipboard is the mirror image: it moves the last thing you copied between a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad on the same Apple account, and there is no Windows client at all. It also keeps no history, so it cannot help you find something you copied an hour ago.

Each vendor solved the problem inside its own walls. Crossing the wall needs a third party.

The honest field

Octoclip

Covers Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Its Nearby Sync works between devices on the same network, and cloud sync runs through a WebDAV or S3 bucket you supply yourself, protected by a master password. Pricing is one time: $19.99 for 2 devices, $39.99 for 5, each including a year of updates. The free tier gives you one nearby device, recent clips and basic search. Secret masking, OCR, whole-database encryption and auto-paste are not documented.

UniClipboard

Free and open source under the AGPL, covering Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android. It encrypts end to end with XChaCha20, encrypts at rest, pairs by invitation code plus a passphrase, and works across the internet using NAT hole-punching with an encrypted relay. The published caveats: iOS is a TestFlight beta and Android ships as a sideloaded APK. Secret masking, OCR, snippets, auto-paste and auto-delete are not documented.

Clipnest

Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. You pair by scanning a QR code, then both devices show the same six digit code and both confirm it, so nobody joins just by being on your Wi-Fi. Paired devices talk directly over the local network, encrypted end to end, with no server and no account, and a device that was offline catches up when it reconnects. On top of sync it masks secrets and keeps them out of search, never captures from apps you exclude, reads your screenshots with on-device OCR so you can search the words inside them, keeps snippets and folders, pastes back into the app you left, and encrypts the whole history at rest on every device. $14.99 once for up to 5 devices; free for your first 20 items. Sync is on the same network today, across the internet later.

Side by side

Questions

Does Win+V sync to a Mac?

No. Windows cloud clipboard syncs between Windows PCs on the same Microsoft account. A Mac is not part of it, and Universal Clipboard is Apple only in the same way.

What is the free option?

UniClipboard is free and open source under the AGPL, covers Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, encrypts with XChaCha20 and pairs by invitation code plus a passphrase. Its published caveats are that iOS is a TestFlight beta and Android ships as a sideloaded APK.

Do I have to supply my own storage bucket?

With Octoclip you do for cloud sync: its documentation describes cloud sync through your own WebDAV or S3 bucket with a master password, while nearby sync stays on the local network. Clipnest has no bucket to configure.

Which one masks secrets?

Of the three, only Clipnest publishes secret detection: passwords, cards, one time codes, API keys and private keys are masked and kept out of search, and apps you exclude are never captured. We could not find the feature described in the other two as of August 2026.