Free online clipboard — no login
An online clipboard for every machine you own.
Copy something on your laptop and paste it on your desktop. Or your phone. Type one five-character key on each device and they share a clipboard — no account, no install, nothing stored on a server. It works between devices on different networks, not just the same Wi-Fi.
- Sync text, images and files between Windows, macOS, Android and ChromeOS
- Encrypted in the browser, before anything is sent
- Nothing is written to disk, on your machine or ours
Type this on your other device — or type a key someone gave you over this one, and the same button joins it.
Free. Works in Chrome on Windows, macOS and Android.
The path a copy takes
How your clipboard gets from one device to the other
Text is encrypted on the machine that copied it and decrypted on the one that receives it. The relay in the middle only ever sees a room hash and ciphertext, and keeps neither. Files skip it entirely.
Your laptop encrypts the clip, the relay passes the ciphertext along, and your desktop decrypts it and puts it on the system clipboard. Files take the lower route: straight between the two machines, never through the relay.
Getting started
How to sync your clipboard between two devices
Open this page on both devices and type the same key. There is nothing to download and no account to make, so the whole thing takes about fifteen seconds.
- Open RealtimeClipboard on the first machine. It generates a key like
D75LV. - Type that key on your second machine, or scan the QR code.
- Copy anything. Switch to RealtimeClipboard and it is already on the way.
- On the other device it lands straight on the system clipboard. Just paste.
Capabilities
What this online clipboard can do
Text and images
Copy a screenshot and it appears as a preview on your other devices.
Files, peer to peer
Up to 5 MB each. Only the thumbnail crosses the server — the file itself goes straight between your machines.
End-to-end encrypted
The key never leaves your browser. The server sees a hash and ciphertext, and stores neither.
Installs as an app
Chrome will offer to install it. Own window, own icon, works offline.
No account
No email, no password, no profile. Close the tab and the session is gone.
Live or manual
Share everything you copy, or only what you paste in deliberately. One switch.
Where this fits
RealtimeClipboard vs Snapdrop, PairDrop, LocalSend and AirDrop
The nearby tools are mostly file droppers: you pick a device and push a file at it. RealtimeClipboard is a clipboard — what you copy shows up ready to paste on the other machine, without picking anything.
| Tool | Account | Install | Across networks | Lands on system clipboard | Files | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RealtimeClipboard | None | None — browser | Yes | Yes | P2P, 5 MB | Windows, macOS, Android, ChromeOS, Linux |
| PairDrop | None | None — browser | Yes, via a 6-digit pairing code | No — you send a message | P2P | Any browser |
| Snapdrop | Optional since the LimeWire acquisition | None — browser | Same network only | No | P2P | Any browser |
| LocalSend | None | Native app on both ends | Same network only | No | Unlimited, LAN | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS |
| AirDrop | None | Built in | Nearby devices only | No | Unlimited | Apple devices only |
| KDE Connect | None | App on both ends | Same network only | Yes | Yes | Linux, Windows, Android |
| Pushbullet | Required | App or extension | Yes | Yes, on the paid tier | Paid above a small cap | Windows, Android, browsers |
Checked against each project's own documentation in August 2026. If something here has gone out of date, open an issue and it will be corrected.
Live
Sessions running right now
Sessions worldwide
Counts come from the relay, at most once every 30 seconds. It reports totals only — no keys, no addresses, nothing you copied. This page sends it nothing. If the number is small, that is because this is new.
Before you rely on it
Things worth knowing before you rely on it
This is pre-alpha, and the trade-offs are real
- The key is the password. Anyone who has it can read everything you copy while the session is open, and request your files. Treat it like one.
- It cannot watch your clipboard in the background. No web app can, on any browser — reading the clipboard requires the window to be focused. You switch to RealtimeClipboard and it picks up what you copied.
- Live mode shares everything you copy, including passwords you copied for some unrelated reason. Manual mode exists for exactly that reason.
- Peer-to-peer file transfer often fails on corporate networks, which block the connections it needs. It falls back to the server, and tells you when it does.
- Chrome first. Firefox and Safari can receive and can send what you paste in, but cannot read the clipboard on their own.
Questions
Online clipboard questions, answered
What is an online clipboard?
An online clipboard is a web page that holds what you copy on one device so you can paste it on another. Instead of emailing yourself a link or plugging in a cable, both devices open the same page, identify themselves with a short key, and share a single clipboard between them.
How do I sync my clipboard between my phone and my PC?
Open RealtimeClipboard on both, type the same five-character key on each, and copy something. It arrives on the other device ready to paste. There is no account to make and nothing to install, so it works on a machine where you do not have admin rights.
Can I share a clipboard between Windows and Android without an account?
Yes. RealtimeClipboard needs no email, no password and no sign-in — the five-character key is the whole identity of a session. When you close the tab the session is gone, and nothing about it was ever written to disk.
Does it work if the two devices are on different networks?
Yes. Text goes through a relay, so a laptop on home Wi-Fi and a phone on mobile data share a clipboard perfectly well. This is the main difference from Snapdrop, LocalSend and AirDrop, which need both devices on the same network. Files are the exception: they go directly between the two machines, and that direct connection is the part corporate firewalls sometimes block.
Is an online clipboard safe to use?
It depends entirely on whether the server can read what you copy — and with RealtimeClipboard it cannot. Text is encrypted in your browser with AES-GCM before it is sent, and the key never leaves your device: the server only sees a hash that tells it which room to route to, and ciphertext it has no way to open. It keeps neither. The honest caveat is that the key is a bearer credential — anyone who learns it can read that session while it is open.
Is this a real-time clipboard?
Yes. RealtimeClipboard is a live clipboard: the moment a copy is captured it is encrypted and pushed over an open WebSocket, so it lands on the other device in well under a second on a normal connection. There is no polling and no refresh button — the other device already has it by the time you look at it.
Where is my clipboard data stored?
Nowhere. There is no database and nothing is written to disk. The relay holds the last message for a room in memory and drops it; files never reach the server at all, because they travel peer-to-peer between your two devices.
Can it watch my clipboard in the background?
No, and neither can any other web app on any browser — reading the clipboard requires the window to have focus, which is a deliberate browser security rule. You switch to the RealtimeClipboard tab and it picks up whatever you copied. A native app can do this; a web page cannot, and anything claiming otherwise on the web is worth a second look.
Which browsers does it work in?
Chromium browsers get the full experience — Chrome, Edge, Brave and Chrome on Android can read the clipboard directly. Firefox and Safari can receive everything and can send anything you paste in by hand, but cannot read the clipboard on their own, because they have not implemented that part of the Clipboard API.
Is RealtimeClipboard free?
Yes, free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier and no account. The relay is a small FastAPI service you can also run yourself if you would rather not use someone else's.