Clipboard history on Ubuntu: the complete guide

Ubuntu still ships no clipboard history. Copy something, copy something else, and the first thing is gone — there is no built-in way to get it back, and there has never been one in any Ubuntu release, 26.04 LTS included.

This guide covers the four options that work on both current LTS releases, Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04. It was first written against a real Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS install, then re-checked for Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS on 15 September 2026: every apt command against the 26.04 archive, the GPaste and CopyQ commands against the packages' own contents, and every extension against the GNOME Shell versions its listing actually offers.

First, check which session you are in#

This determines which tools can work at all, so do it before installing anything:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

Which session you are in decides what a clipboard manager can even do. Wayland forbids any client from reading a selection it does not own, which is why several of the options below are GNOME Shell extensions rather than ordinary applications — clipboard managers on Wayland explains the security model and the protocols that work around it. On Kubuntu or another desktop rather than GNOME, the best clipboard manager for Wayland has the pick for yours.

Option 1: Clipboard History extension#

The simplest thing that works on GNOME, and the one to try first. It is a GNOME Shell extension, so it runs inside the compositor and works on Wayland without any protocol support. Its current build lists GNOME Shell 46 through 50, so the same extension covers 24.04 and 26.04.

Install Clipboard History from the GNOME Extensions site, or use the Extension Manager app:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Open Extension Manager, search "Clipboard History", install. Press Super + Shift + V to open the panel. Searchable, keyboard-driven, no daemon to configure.

Option 2: GPaste#

The most established option, and the one with a real daemon behind it rather than only a shell extension. Install both parts — the daemon and the GNOME integration:

sudo apt install gpaste-2 gnome-shell-extension-gpaste

Then log out and back in. Open GPaste Preferences from the applications menu, scroll to the GNOME Shell section, and enable both toggles — the extension does not always enable itself on install, which is the single most common reason people conclude GPaste "doesn't work."

Ubuntu 26.04 packages GPaste 45.3, carried forward with distro patches while upstream has moved on to the 50 series. The patches are what matter here: the extension the 26.04 package installs lists GNOME Shell 50, so it loads. Lag like this is normal for Ubuntu — Linux tools worth installing measures it across the rest of apt.

GPaste also gives you a CLI, which is genuinely useful in scripts. By default history labels each item with an ID and get expects that ID; --use-index switches both to plain numbers:

gpaste-client history --use-index
gpaste-client get --use-index 3

Option 3: CopyQ#

The power-user option, and the only one here that is genuinely cross-platform. Tabs, scripting, an editor for stored items, and filters. Ubuntu 26.04 packages CopyQ 13.0.0:

sudo apt install copyq

CopyQ is an X11-first application. Under a Wayland session it runs through XWayland and its Wayland support has known rough edges, particularly around global shortcuts. If you are on Wayland and want CopyQ specifically, expect to spend time on configuration — and if CopyQ is what you are trying to leave, CopyQ alternatives compares the options.

Option 4: Clipmer#

Ours, so treat this section with the appropriate suspicion. Clipmer is built for people whose clipboard is full of things they would rather not display: it can mask individual entries so they render as dots during a screen share, attach notes to entries, and file them into folders.

curl -LO https://github.com/0x99M/clipmer/releases/latest/download/clipmer_3.2.1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./clipmer_3.2.1_amd64.deb

Press Ctrl + Shift + D to open it. The free version keeps 100 entries. Clipmer is tested on Ubuntu 24.04.4 and 26.04.1 LTS; on 26.04, auto-paste needs 3.2.1 or later. There are .rpm and AppImage builds too — see the install guide for those, and for verifying the download against the published checksums.

The honest trade-off: Clipmer is source-available under PolyForm Strict, not open source, and the folders, notes, and minimal view are paid. Everything above is free software and most of it is GPL. If licensing matters to you — and on Linux it reasonably might — GPaste is the better choice and we would rather you were happy than converted.

Which one should you actually install#

If you want…	Install	Why
Something that just works	Clipboard History	One extension, no daemon, works on Wayland
The most mature option	GPaste	Real daemon, CLI, longest track record
Scripting and power features	CopyQ	Tabs and scripting; X11-first
To not leak secrets on a call	Clipmer	Per-entry masking, notes, folders

What happened to Pano#

Earlier versions of this guide recommended Pano. It is no longer an option on either LTS release: its listing on the GNOME Extensions site offers builds for GNOME Shell 42 through 45 only, so there is nothing to install on 24.04's Shell 46 or 26.04's Shell 50. Its author has also stopped maintaining it — the details are in CopyQ alternatives.

The author points people to Copyous instead. It is GPL-3.0, and its listing covers GNOME Shell 48 through 50, which makes it an option on 26.04 but not on 24.04. We have not tested it, so it is a pointer here rather than a section.

Upgraded from 24.04? Check your extensions still load#

Ubuntu 24.04 runs GNOME Shell 46 and 26.04 runs GNOME Shell 50. GNOME only loads an extension whose metadata.json lists the Shell version that is running, so an extension can survive the upgrade still switched on and doing nothing. We hit this ourselves: it is what broke Clipmer's auto-paste helper until 3.2.1.

List your extensions, then ask GNOME about the one that stopped working:

gnome-extensions list
gnome-extensions info clipboard-history@alexsaveau.dev

State: ACTIVE means it loaded. State: OUT OF DATE means the build you have does not list your Shell version. For an extension from the GNOME Extensions site, update or reinstall it from Extension Manager, which fetches the build made for your Shell if one exists — Clipboard History has one; Pano does not. GPaste from apt needs nothing, because the 26.04 package already lists Shell 50.

GNOME also has a disable-extension-version-validation setting that skips the check. Leave it off: it applies to every extension you have installed, not only the one you want back.

Setting a keyboard shortcut#

GNOME reserves Super + V for notifications, so most tools default to something else. To bind your own, open Settings → Keyboard → View and Customize Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts, then add a command:

# GPaste
gpaste-client ui

# CopyQ
copyq toggle

Extensions set their own shortcut in their preferences instead, since they run inside the shell — Clipboard History's default is Super + Shift + V.

One thing worth knowing before you install any of these#

Whichever you choose, you are about to create a plaintext file on disk that accumulates everything you copy. That will include passwords pasted from a password manager, API keys, database URLs, and session tokens — and it will keep them long after you have forgotten they were there.

That is not an argument against clipboard managers; the productivity gain is real and worth it. It is an argument for knowing where the file lives and what is in it. Clipmer stores its history at ~/.config/clipmer/, GPaste under ~/.local/share/gpaste/. Have a look at yours sometime — it is usually more revealing than people expect.