PowerToys Advanced Paste and IntelliClip overlap less than their names suggest. Advanced Paste, opened with Win+Shift+V, converts the clipboard into another format as you paste: plain text, Markdown, JSON, a file, text from an image, and optional AI rewrites. IntelliClip, opened with Alt+V, is a persistent clipboard history: every text clip, image, path, and snippet is stored locally in SQLite with full-text search, ranked for the app you are in, with paste transforms and regex extraction built in, and nothing leaves your PC. If your problem is “paste this differently,” Advanced Paste is free and excellent. If it is “find what I copied an hour ago,” you need a history like IntelliClip.
Many people run both. This page shows where each one fits.
Search everything you have copied, across reboots, with Alt+V.
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What does PowerToys Advanced Paste do?
From Microsoft’s Advanced Paste documentation:
- Activation: the Advanced Paste window opens with a shortcut, by default Win+Shift+V.
- Paste as plain text directly: a separate action that pastes plain text “without opening the Advanced Paste window.”
- Format conversions such as Markdown and JSON, and paste as a .txt, .png, or .html file. Microsoft notes that, for example, “Paste as JSON is a feature that runs locally and doesn’t use AI.”
- Image to text using local OCR, and transcoding audio or video.
- Access clipboard history: “show and select previously copied items from the Advanced Paste window,” using Windows clipboard history.
- Paste with AI is “optional and can use either an online provider or a local provider such as Foundry Local, Ollama, or Phi Silica.” Online providers include Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Mistral, Google, and others, and “for online providers, you must also have available credits in your account.”
- “Non-AI paste actions run locally on your device.”
It is free, part of PowerToys, and very good at turning one clip into the format you need.
What does IntelliClip do?
IntelliClip is a clipboard manager for Windows, sold as a one-time purchase. From its product page:
- Alt+V overlay that appears over your work: type to search, browse ranked history, paste with Enter.
- Persistent local history in SQLite on disk, across reboots: text, images where supported, flattened rich text, paths, and snippets.
- Full-text search with SQLite FTS5, with search latency under 1 ms on its product page.
- Context-aware suggestions: history is re-ranked for the foreground app, so IDE, browser, and ticket clips surface when they matter.
- Paste transformations: uppercase, lowercase, camelCase, strip HTML or RTF for plain paste.
- Regex extraction without scripting.
- Secret handling: ignores 1Password, Bitwarden, and KeePassXC copy events, and excludes high-entropy keys and sensitive strings from search indexing.
- Offline: no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud sync.
How do Advanced Paste and IntelliClip compare?
| PowerToys Advanced Paste | IntelliClip | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | One-time purchase |
| Default shortcut | Win+Shift+V | Alt+V |
| Main job | Transform the current clip | Store and search all clips |
| History | Uses Windows clipboard history | Own persistent SQLite history |
| Search past clips | Browse Windows history | Full-text search (FTS5) |
| Ranking by current app | Not stated | Yes |
| Plain text paste | Yes, including a direct shortcut | Strip HTML or RTF transform |
| Case transforms | Through AI or custom actions | Built in |
| Markdown, JSON, file output | Yes | Not stated |
| Image to text (OCR) | Yes, local | Not stated |
| Regex extraction | Not stated | Yes |
| AI rewriting | Optional, local or online providers | No |
| Password manager handling | Not stated | Ignores 1Password, Bitwarden, KeePassXC |
| Network | Local unless you choose an online AI provider | Offline, no cloud sync |
Why does history matter more than transforms for many people?
Most clipboard frustration is not about format. It is about loss:
- You copied a command, then copied something else, and the command is gone.
- You copied an address this morning and need it again now.
- You restarted, and the clipboard is empty.
Advanced Paste can show Windows clipboard history, which has its own limits. Our pages on the Windows clipboard history 25 item limit and clipboard history cleared after restart explain those limits. IntelliClip keeps its own history on disk, so clips survive reboots and stay searchable by any word in them.
Context-aware ranking brings the clips for the app you are in to the top.
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When is Advanced Paste the better tool?
- You need format conversions: Markdown, JSON, or saving a clip as a file.
- You need text from an image with local OCR.
- You want AI rewriting, with a local model or an online provider you pay for.
- You want free and already installed with PowerToys.
When is IntelliClip the better tool?
- You lose clips and need a persistent, searchable history.
- You copy the same things repeatedly across apps and want them ranked for the current app.
- You handle secrets and want password manager copies ignored and high-entropy strings kept out of search.
- You want offline by design, with no AI provider or cloud sync involved.
- You want regex extraction to pull an ID or URL out of a long clip without a script.
Can I use both together?
Yes, because they use different shortcuts by default: Win+Shift+V for Advanced Paste and Alt+V for IntelliClip. A practical split:
- Copy as usual. IntelliClip records the clip in its history.
- Need it again later? Press Alt+V, type a word from it, and paste.
- Need a different format? Paste with Advanced Paste, for example as JSON or Markdown.
- Need plain text? Use either: Advanced Paste’s direct plain text paste or IntelliClip’s strip formatting transform.
If you ever reassign shortcuts, avoid giving both tools the same one.
How do I set up the pair in five minutes?
- Install PowerToys and turn on Advanced Paste, then decide whether you want Paste with AI at all. It is optional; leave it off if you do not want any provider involved.
- Turn on “Paste as plain text directly” if you paste into email or documents often, and learn its shortcut.
- Install IntelliClip from the Microsoft Store and copy a few things to see them appear under Alt+V.
- Copy a password from 1Password, Bitwarden, or KeePassXC and confirm IntelliClip does not record it.
- Try a search. Copy a long command, copy ten other things, then press Alt+V and type one word from the command.
After a day you will know which tool you reach for in each situation, and you can remove the one you do not use.
Frequently asked questions
Is PowerToys Advanced Paste a clipboard manager?
It is mainly a paste transformer. It can show Windows clipboard history, but it does not keep its own searchable history.
Does Advanced Paste send my clipboard to the cloud?
Microsoft says non-AI actions run locally. Paste with AI is optional, and online providers send content to that provider. Local providers keep it on your PC.
Does IntelliClip use AI?
No. IntelliClip’s ranking, transforms, and extraction run locally with no AI service and no network.
Which Windows versions does IntelliClip support?
Its product page says it targets Windows 11 64-bit, and that many workflows also run on supported Windows 10 builds; check the Store listing for specifics.
Try IntelliClip
Get IntelliClip from the Microsoft Store, read the IntelliClip product page, and see IntelliClip compared with other clipboard managers.
Never lose a clip again, and find any of them in a keystroke.
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Microsoft, Windows, and PowerToys are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. 1Password, Bitwarden, KeePassXC, OpenAI, Mistral, Google, and Ollama are trademarks of their respective owners. Other product names are trademarks of their owners. IntelliClip is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
Last updated 17 October 2026. Published by Automata Labs, a software company in Canada.