A CleanClip alternative
you can try first
Free text expander, clipboard manager and markdown notes. $18 once for unlimited clips, notes sync and AI prompts.
Why people move from CleanClip
The specific reasons people give for switching.
You pay before you know
CleanClip is $12.99 up front. TypeFire's free tier is permanent, not a countdown: run the text expander uncapped and the clipboard manager at 10 clips for as long as you like before deciding whether $18 is worth it.
It is a clipboard manager and nothing else
If you also want abbreviations that expand into full text in every Mac app, that is a second app, a second Accessibility grant and a second update cycle.
No OCR on your screenshots
TypeFire runs on-device text recognition over every image you copy, so you can find a screenshot by a word that appears inside it. Free tier, offline, no provider involved.
No AI on your clips
Summarise a thread you copied, rewrite it, or translate it, using Apple Intelligence, a local model, or your own key.
A clip stays a clip
When you notice you have pasted the same paragraph for the fourth time, TypeFire lets you promote it to a snippet with an abbreviation. CleanClip has no snippet engine to promote it into.
TypeFire compared with CleanClip
Prices and capabilities as of August 2026.
| TypeFire | CleanClip | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $0, then $18 once | $12.99 one time |
| Free tier | Yes, 10 clips, permanent | Trial only |
| Text expander included | Yes, unlimited, free | No, clipboard only |
| OCR search inside images | Yes, on-device, free tier | No |
| AI actions on clips | Yes, free tier | No |
| Save a clip as a reusable snippet | Yes, with an abbreviation | No |
| Images, files, colours | Yes, with previews | Yes |
| Local-only storage | Yes, encrypted database | Yes |
| Retention controls | By age, count or disk budget | Yes |
| Chrome extension for web apps | Yes, free | No |
CleanClip pricing from cleanclip.cc, August 2026. Both apps store clipboard history locally.
Where CleanClip is genuinely better
Three things CleanClip does better. If any of them is your deciding factor, use CleanClip.
Focused design
CleanClip has spent its whole development on one job and the interface shows it. If you want a clipboard manager and genuinely nothing else, a tool that does not also contain a text expander is arguably the cleaner choice.
One price, no tiers
$12.99 and you have the whole app. No free tier to reason about, no cap to hit, no upgrade prompt. Some people would rather buy the thing outright.
Mature clipboard details
Concentrating on one feature set means the corners get filled in. TypeFire covers the common ground but is dividing its attention across two halves.
What TypeFire adds
Not available in CleanClip at any price.
A permanent free tier
Judge the app for as long as you like before paying. The text expander is uncapped free and the clipboard works at 10 clips with every feature available.
Screenshots you can search
On-device text recognition reads every image at capture, which is the single most useful thing a clipboard manager can do with an image and something almost nobody in this category offers free.
A full text expander
Unlimited abbreviations expanding everywhere, plus rich text, Markdown, dynamic tokens, fill-in placeholders and script snippets.
AI where you already work
On any clip, or on text you highlight anywhere on your Mac. Apple Intelligence or a local model keeps it on your machine.
The clip-to-snippet loop
One right-click turns something you copied once into three characters you type forever.
Turn anything you copy into something you type
Right-click a clip, choose Save as snippet, give it an abbreviation. The thing you copied once becomes something you type three characters to get, forever. The same conversions run across all three surfaces: a clip becomes a note, and a note you keep rewriting becomes a snippet. Clipboard managers have no snippet engine, text expanders do not watch your clipboard, and no note app has either, which is why the loop only closes here.
- 01
Copy something
It lands in Clips alongside everything else you copied today.
- 02
Save as snippet
It leaves your rolling history and enters your permanent library.
- 03
Give it a trigger
Type
invfrom then on and never look it up again.
A clipboard manager you can tell what to ignore
A clipboard manager sees everything you copy. Until 4.0 the only control over that was a password-manager exclusion you could not see. There are three now, none of them gated, and the limits of the strongest one are stated rather than buried.
Turn image capture off
One switch. Text keeps being captured and pictures stop. Images you have already saved are kept rather than deleted, which is not what most people expect a privacy toggle to do, so it is worth saying.
Name apps to skip
Add any application and TypeFire ignores what you copy in it. Choose from the apps it has already seen, with clip counts, or browse to any app on your Mac. Each app gets one of three settings: allow it, block images only, or block everything you copy there. The middle one is what most people want for a work tool, keeping the text and losing the screenshots.
The password managers, now visible
TypeFire has always ignored password managers. That list is in Settings now, twenty-three apps including 1Password, Bitwarden, KeePassXC, Dashlane and Apple Passwords, blocked by bundle ID in code rather than by a setting you have to find. It shows which of them you have installed, and any one can be overridden.
Encrypted database, owner-only files
Clips are stored in an encrypted SQLite database on your Mac. The key is generated on your machine and kept in the macOS Keychain. Image files sit alongside the database with owner-only permissions.
Secrets expire in minutes
Card numbers and high-entropy strings are detected and deleted after five minutes by default, adjustable in Settings. Everything else follows the retention you choose.
An on-device AI option
Apple Intelligence and local models through Ollama or LM Studio run entirely on your machine. If you pick Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini instead, text goes to that provider directly; TypeFire operates no server in that path.
Where blocking by app stops being a guarantee
macOS does not tell an application which other application wrote to the clipboard. TypeFire matches on the app that was in front at the time, plus any app that identifies itself using the standard convention. That covers the overwhelming majority of real cases and it is not absolute. The protection that does not depend on a guess is the concealed-content marker: password managers mark what they copy, and TypeFire never stores it whatever else is set.
The app list also covers what you copy, not screenshots you save as a file. A PNG on your desktop records nothing about what was on screen, so TypeFire matches those to an app where it can and skips them when it does. It is right in the ordinary case and it is not a promise: to keep saved screenshots out entirely, turn off Save screenshots to Clips.
Eighteen dollars. Once.
TypeFire Pro is a single payment that unlocks unlimited clips, Selection Prompts, Prompt Chains, notes sync and note version history. There is no subscription and no per-seat pricing.
Free tier, then one payment
No free tier at all
One time
No free tier
One time
Lifetime, or $3.99/mo
Subscription, forever
CleanClip is $12.99 up front. TypeFire is $0 to start and $18 once, with the text expander free either way.
Moving from CleanClip
Still not answered?
Yes. CleanClip is $12.99 one time. TypeFire is $0 to start and $18 once for unlimited clips, and the text expander costs nothing at all.
The bigger practical difference is that you can use TypeFire indefinitely without paying, so the $18 is a decision you make after you know whether the app suits you.
The text expander entirely: unlimited snippets, abbreviations, collections, tags, dynamic tokens, fill-in placeholders, rich text, Markdown, script snippets, the Spotlight-style launcher, iCloud sync, Markdown Quick Look and imports.
The clipboard manager is free at your 10 most recent clips with every clipboard feature available, including OCR search and AI actions. Pro at $18 once removes the clip cap and adds Selection Prompts and Prompt Chains.
No, and that is true between any two clipboard managers.
Clipboard history is transient by nature and neither app imports the other's database. Run both for a week if you want, then let the old one go. Anything you would hate to lose is a sign it should be a snippet rather than a clip.
Yes. Clips live in a SQLCipher-encrypted database keyed from your macOS Keychain, readable only by your user account, with image and file blobs alongside it at owner-only permissions.
Nothing is transmitted anywhere, and content marked confidential by password managers is never captured.
Try it before you pay for it
A working clipboard manager and an uncapped text expander for $0. $18 once if you want the 10-clip cap gone.
Free text expander, clipboard manager and markdown notes. $18 once for unlimited clips, notes sync and AI prompts.
⌃⌘⇧V your clips⌃⌘⇧T your snippets