If you're looking for Snipping Tool for Mac, there's no app by that name on macOS. Snipping Tool is Microsoft's, for Windows. Your Mac already does the same thing with a shortcut: press ⌘⇧4 and drag over whatever you want. Press ⌘⇧5 and you get a toolbar with everything else, windows, the whole screen, recording, a timer.
For most people that's plenty!
The first half of this page is every built-in shortcut and option, plus a key-by-key table if you're coming from Windows' Snipping Tool. The second half is for when the built-in tool isn't enough: long pages, a shot you want to keep on screen, text you want to copy, or a screenshot that's really a question.
We read every other tool's details on its own page on 2026-11-01, and each one is linked.
Snipping Tool for Mac: the built-in shortcuts
You don't open an app first. You just press the keys.
The one you'll use most is ⌘⇧4, also written Shift-Command-4. Drag over the part of the screen you want and let go. Made a mistake? Press Esc before you let go and nothing is saved. Box the right size but in the wrong spot? Hold Space while you drag and the whole selection moves.
For one window, press ⌘⇧4, let go, then press Space. The pointer turns into a camera. Click any window or menu and you get just that. Window shots come with a shadow, so if you don't want it, hold Option while you click.
⌘⇧3 takes the whole screen.
Every screenshot lands on your desktop as a .png, recordings as .mov. The names start with "Screenshot" or "Screen Recording" plus the date and time. Apple keeps all of this in its Mac screenshot guide.
⌘⇧5: the screenshot toolbar
If you'd rather click than remember keys, press ⌘⇧5. That opens Apple's Screenshot app as a toolbar on screen.
It has buttons to capture the entire screen, a window, or a part of it, and to record the entire screen or a part of it.
Next to them is an Options menu. If you're looking for the Windows "delay", it's here:
- Save to picks where files go: one of the preset places, or Other Location for any folder.
- Timer waits before the capture starts, so you can open a menu first.
- Show Floating Thumbnail turns the little preview after each shot on or off.
- Remember Last Selection keeps your last box for the next capture.
- Show Mouse Pointer decides whether the pointer shows up in the shot.
Copy a snip to the clipboard instead of a file
A lot of screenshots only exist to be pasted once, into a reply, and then they sit on the desktop forever.
Add Control to the shortcut and no file gets made. Control-Shift-Command-4, drag, let go, and the image is on your clipboard. Switch to iMessage or Gmail and press ⌘V.
The catch: the Mac clipboard holds one thing. Copy a link before you paste and the screenshot is gone. If that keeps happening to you, here's how to see clipboard history on Mac.
Mark up a screenshot with the floating thumbnail
After each shot a thumbnail sits in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds.
Click it and a window opens where you can mark up the screenshot, trim a recording, or share it. Swipe it to the right and it saves right away. Or drag it straight into a document or a Finder folder before it slides off.
Windows Snipping Tool vs. Mac, key by key
We went through Microsoft's own page on how to use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots on 2026-11-01. Here's where each thing lives on a Mac:
| Snipping Tool (Windows) | On a Mac |
|---|---|
| Windows logo key + Shift + S | ⌘⇧4, or ⌘⇧5 for the toolbar |
| Rectangle | ⌘⇧4, then drag |
| Window | ⌘⇧4, then Space, then click |
| Full screen | ⌘⇧3 |
| Freeform | No Mac equivalent |
| Delay (1 to 5 seconds) | Timer in the ⌘⇧5 Options menu |
| Record (Windows + Shift + R) | The record buttons in ⌘⇧5 |
| Print Screen to clipboard | Control-Shift-Command-3 |
| Text actions | Live Text in Preview, after you save |
| Markup | Click the floating thumbnail |
Two real differences.
Freeform, the lasso you draw around something, doesn't exist on a Mac. You get rectangles and windows.
Text is the other one. On Windows you pull text out right in Snipping Tool. On a Mac you save the shot, open it in Preview, and select the text with Live Text. It works, but Apple says it isn't available in every region or language.
Where the built-in tool stops
- No scrolling capture. A long web page, a long Slack thread or a long document has to be several shots.
- No way to pin a screenshot on screen while you work in another app.
- Copying text means save, open Preview, select, copy.
- Once you've got the image, all you can do is save it, copy it or mark it up.
If none of that bothers you, you can stop reading here. ⌘⇧4 and ⌘⇧5 are all you need.
AtAt: the same shortcuts, with a card after every shot
AtAt is an AI assistant for Mac: you type @@ anywhere you can type to ask your own AI, and the answer comes back where you were. Capture is one way to give that AI something to look at. It's also a full screenshot tool on its own.
It uses the keys you already know: ⌘⇧4 for an area, ⌘⇧3 for the display you're working on, ⌘⇧5 for its All-In-One bar. You can change or clear each one in Settings → Shortcuts. During setup, Set as Default Screenshot Tool shows you the matching macOS items, and you turn them off in System Settings yourself, so the two don't fight over the same keys.
Selecting has a few extras:
- Press Return before you drag and it captures the last area again.
- Press A to switch between a free area and a window.
- A magnifier helps you put the edges exactly where you want, and you can resize from any edge or corner after.
- Space moves the box and ⌥ grows it from the center, same as macOS.
- A box can stretch across two displays.
After the shot, a Quick Access card shows up.
Copy and Save are the two main buttons. Until you press Save, the shot is a working copy in AtAt's own folder, so your desktop doesn't fill up. Save moves it to your export location, the desktop unless you change it.
Annotate opens the Image Editor: arrows, lines, boxes, ovals, a pencil, a highlighter, text, numbered counters. Blur or pixelate a name or an email address before you share it. Apply sends the edited image back to the card.
Pin to Screen keeps the card on screen while you work. Swipe it away, or right-click and choose Close, when you're done.
And you can drag the thumbnail into Slack, Notes or Finder. It carries both the image and the file.
AtAt's own bar and card stay out of your screenshots, too.
Scrolling capture and copying text off the screen
⌘⇧5 in AtAt opens All-In-One. You select once, and a bar next to the selection asks what to do with it: Ask @@, Area, Fullscreen, Window, Scrolling, OCR or Recording. You never select twice.
For a long page, pick Scrolling. Adjust the area, press Start Capture, scroll yourself or choose Auto Scroll, and press Done. There's more on that in how to take a scrolling screenshot on Mac.
For text, pick OCR. It reads the text straight off the screen. No file, no shutter sound, no card. A preview shows what it found, with Copy (⌘C), Save .txt and Ask @@ (Tab). ⌥-click OCR to skip the preview. Turn on Automatically copy text and the text is already on your clipboard.
It doesn't swap what it reads for dictionary words, so code identifiers and odd product names come through exactly as written.
Ask your AI about the screenshot
Most screenshots are questions. What does this error mean? What is this chart saying? What do I reply?
Say a settings window throws an error you don't understand. Press ⌘⇧4, grab the dialog, and press Ask @@ on the card. (Or pick Ask @@ from the ⌘⇧5 bar right after you select.) AtAt's input opens with the screenshot already attached. Type "what does this mean and how do I fix it", press Return.
The answer comes back with Copy as the main button. Nothing gets typed into the app behind it.
Text works the same way. Someone sends a paragraph in a language you don't read, OCR it, press Ask @@, ask for a translation.
AtAt runs the AI you already have: Claude Code, Codex and other agent CLIs, your own API key, or a local model through Ollama. It has no model of its own.
What's free, and when another app is the better pick
Without a plan, these keep working: screenshots, recording (up to 1080p, 30 FPS and five minutes), OCR, Clipboard History (⌘⇧V, up to 200 recent copies) and both editors. Anything you take out of an editor without a plan gets a small AtAt logo in the corner. A screenshot you never open in an editor never gets one.
Ask @@ runs your AI, so after the 14-day preview it needs a plan. The preview doesn't need an account or a card. AtAt needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later.
What AtAt doesn't do: it has no self-timer (the ⌘⇧5 Timer in macOS does), and it has no cloud library for your captures.
If those matter more to you, look elsewhere. CleanShot X has a self-timer, one-click cloud upload with a share link, and pinned screenshots you can resize and fade. Shottr is free to use, asks now and then if you'd like to buy it, and the download is about 2.4 MB. Both have scrolling capture and OCR.
If you want a better screenshot app and never plan to ask an AI anything, either one is a good pick.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Snipping Tool for Mac?
There's no app called Snipping Tool on a Mac, because Snipping Tool is Microsoft's app for Windows. macOS has the same job built in: ⌘⇧4 to drag over an area, and ⌘⇧5 for a toolbar with window, full-screen and recording options. You don't need to install anything.
What is the Snipping Tool shortcut on a Mac?
The closest shortcut is ⌘⇧4 (Shift-Command-4): drag over an area and let go to capture it. Press ⌘⇧4 and then Space to click a single window instead. ⌘⇧5 opens the full screenshot toolbar.
How do I copy a screenshot to the clipboard on a Mac?
Hold Control with any screenshot shortcut, like Control-Shift-Command-4, and the image goes to your clipboard instead of a file. Then paste it straight into an email or a chat. The clipboard holds one item, so your next copy replaces it.
Where do screenshots go on a Mac?
macOS saves screenshots to your desktop by default, as .png files, and screen recordings as .mov files. Their names start with "Screenshot" or "Screen Recording" plus the date and time. To change the folder, press ⌘⇧5 and pick another place under Save to in the Options menu.
How do I copy text from a screenshot on a Mac?
Open the screenshot in Preview and select the text with Live Text, then copy it. Live Text isn't available in every region or language. To copy text straight off the screen without saving an image first, you need a third-party tool such as AtAt or Shottr.
How do I take a scrolling screenshot on a Mac?
The macOS Screenshot app has no scrolling capture, so you need a third-party tool such as AtAt, CleanShot X or Shottr. In AtAt you press ⌘⇧5, pick Scrolling, press Start Capture, scroll yourself or choose Auto Scroll, then press Done.
Is AtAt's screenshot tool free?
Yes, screenshots, recording up to five minutes, OCR and both editors work without a plan. Without a plan, anything you take out of an editor gets a small AtAt logo, while screenshots you never open in an editor never do. Asking your AI about a capture with Ask @@ needs a plan after the 14-day preview.