The Snipping Tool on Mac: the equivalent and how to use it
A Mac does not have an app called the Snipping Tool, but it does the same job with built-in shortcuts. The closest equivalent is Shift-Command-4, which gives you a crosshair to drag over any part of the screen, the same as a rectangular snip. For a panel of buttons like the Windows tool, press Shift-Command-5 to open the screenshot toolbar. Both are already on your Mac, nothing to download. If you came from Windows looking for the Snipping Tool, this page is the translation, and the rest of it covers how to use each one, the shortcuts, and how to snip straight to the clipboard.
Windows Snipping Tool actions, and their Mac equivalent
If you know the Windows tool, this table maps what you used to do onto the Mac shortcut that does the same thing. There is no single app to open: the Mac spreads the same features across a few shortcuts and one toolbar.
| On Windows (Snipping Tool) | On a Mac |
|---|---|
| Rectangular snip | Shift-Command-4, then drag a box over the area |
| Full-screen snip | Shift-Command-3 |
| Window snip | Shift-Command-4, then Space, then click the window |
| The Snipping Tool window of buttons | Shift-Command-5, the screenshot toolbar |
| Copy snip to clipboard | Add Control, e.g. Control-Shift-Command-4 |
| Delay / timer snip | Shift-Command-5, then Options, then Timer (5 or 10 seconds) |
How to open the Mac Snipping Tool
Press Shift-Command-5. A small toolbar slides up from the bottom of the screen with every capture option as a button, and this is the panel that feels most like the Windows Snipping Tool. You do not search for an app in Spotlight or pin anything to the Dock, the shortcut is the way in.
From left to right the toolbar lets you grab the whole screen, a selected window, or a region you drag, set a Timer so the capture fires a few seconds after you click, and open an Options menu to change where snips save and whether the corner thumbnail shows. The same toolbar also records the screen, which the Windows tool does not, but for stills it is a close match.
How to use the Snipping Tool on a Mac
For a quick snip, you usually skip the toolbar entirely. Press Shift-Command-4 and the pointer becomes a crosshair. Drag a box over the part of the screen you want and release, and the Mac captures exactly that rectangle. This is the everyday equivalent of a rectangular snip, and most people end up using it far more than the toolbar.
A few keys make the drag more precise: hold the Space bar to move the whole selection without resizing it, hold Shift to lock one edge while you adjust the other, and press Escape to cancel before you let go. To snip a single window cleanly, press Shift-Command-4, tap the Space bar so the crosshair becomes a camera, then click the window to capture it with its shadow.
By default the snip saves to the Desktop as a PNG and a thumbnail flashes in the bottom-right corner. Click that thumbnail and the shot opens in Markup, where you can crop it, add arrows or text, and rotate it, the same kind of light editing the Windows tool offers after a snip. For the complete set of capture methods, including dual displays and the menu trick, see how to take a screenshot on a Mac.
The Mac Snipping Tool shortcut
There is no single Snipping Tool hotkey on a Mac, because the feature is a small family of shortcuts rather than one app. The two to memorize are Shift-Command-4 for a quick region snip and Shift-Command-5 for the toolbar. Add Control to send the result to the clipboard instead of a file.
You can also change these in System Settings under Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts, then Screenshots, if the defaults clash with something else. The full list, including the lesser-known ones and how to rebind them, is in the Mac screenshot keyboard shortcut reference.
Snip and copy to the clipboard
On Windows a snip lands on the clipboard by default. On a Mac it saves a file by default, so to get the same clipboard behavior you add the Control key. Press Control-Shift-Command-4, drag the area, and the snip goes straight to the clipboard. Then paste it with Command-V into a chat, an email or a document, no file left on the Desktop afterwards.
This is the cleanest route when the snip only needs to land in one place. The full walkthrough, including copying a file you already saved, is in copying and pasting a screenshot on a Mac.
Where Mac snips save, and how to change it
Unless you sent it to the clipboard, a snip saves to the Desktop as a PNG named with the date and time it was taken. To find a recent one, sort the Desktop by date. To change where snips land, open the Shift-Command-5 toolbar, click Options, and pick a folder under Save to, such as Documents or a custom folder.
If your snips seem to have disappeared, that save location was probably changed at some point. The fix and the full list of where they can end up is in where screenshots save on a Mac.
Hide anything sensitive before you send the snip
One habit worth keeping from Windows or starting fresh on a Mac: check what is in the snip before it travels. Snips of a console, an inbox or an admin screen often catch something that should not go with them, a customer email, an account number, a name, a token. The built-in Markup tool can draw a black box over it, but that box is a separate layer, and in the wrong format it can be lifted off to reveal what was underneath. Covering is not the same as removing.
To actually hide that detail rather than cover it, you replace the pixels. I built ScrubShot for this: it captures with a shortcut like the built-in tools, then its Scrub tool pixelates a selected area straight into the image so it cannot be recovered, plus Marker, Text and Crop for ordinary edits. Everything happens on your Mac and nothing is uploaded. If you regularly share screens with private data on them, the deeper guide to redacting screenshots on a Mac is the next thing to read.
FAQ
- What's the equivalent of the Snipping Tool on Mac?
- The Mac equivalent of the Snipping Tool is the screenshot toolbar, which you open with Shift-Command-5. It gives you the same kind of panel of buttons: capture the whole screen, a window, or a region you drag, plus a timer and the save location. If you just want the quick snip, Shift-Command-4 turns the pointer into a crosshair so you can drag a box over the part you want, the same action as a Snipping Tool rectangular snip.
- Does a Mac have a Snipping Tool?
- Yes, but it is not called the Snipping Tool and it is not a separate app you launch. The same job is built into macOS as a set of keyboard shortcuts and a toolbar. Shift-Command-4 drags a region, Shift-Command-3 grabs the whole screen, and Shift-Command-5 opens a toolbar with every option laid out as buttons. Nothing to download, it is already there on every Mac.
- What is the shortcut for the Snipping Tool on a Mac?
- There are two worth knowing. Shift-Command-4 is the closest to a quick snip: it gives you a crosshair to drag over the area you want. Shift-Command-5 opens the full toolbar with all the capture buttons. To snip straight to the clipboard instead of saving a file, add Control, so Control-Shift-Command-4, then paste with Command-V.
- How do you snip and copy to the clipboard on a Mac?
- Press Control-Shift-Command-4, drag the crosshair over the area, and the snip goes to the clipboard rather than saving a file. Then press Command-V to paste it into a message, a document or a chat. The Control key is what redirects the capture to the clipboard; without it, the snip saves to the Desktop as a PNG.
Try it
ScrubShot is a Mac app that snips with a shortcut like the built-ins and adds the one thing Markup is missing: it pixelates sensitive areas into the image so they cannot be recovered, all on-device. Press the shortcut, scrub out the private bits, crop or label the rest, then copy or save. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once, with lifetime updates and no subscription.