How do you copy and paste on an iPad?
Double-tap a word to select it, then drag the grab points to cover what you want. Tap the selection and tap Copy. Tap where it should go and tap Paste. With a keyboard attached, use Command+C and Command+V. Between two open apps you can also touch and hold an item and drag it across.
Selecting text with your finger
Apple’s iPad guide gives three ways to start a selection:
- Double-tap with one finger to select a word.
- Triple-tap with one finger to select a paragraph.
- Double-tap and hold the first word of a longer block, then drag the grab points to the last word.
Then tap the highlighted text to bring up the edit menu. On iPadOS 26 that’s a small bar with Cut, Copy and Paste, plus Replace and Format when they apply. An arrow at the end shows more options. If the bar vanishes because you tapped somewhere else, tap the selection again and it returns.
Precise selection is easier on the onscreen keyboard than on the text. Touch and hold the Space bar until the letters on the keys disappear, and the keyboard turns into a trackpad for moving the cursor. Tap the keyboard with a second finger while you do that, then drag the first finger, and you’re selecting text. Apple tucks this into a tip at the bottom of its page. It’s the best way we know to grab half a sentence from the middle of a long email without fighting the grab points.
The three-finger shortcuts
These are identical to the ones on an iPhone, which our iPhone copy and paste guide covers in more detail. With text selected, pinch closed with three fingers to copy. Pinch closed twice to cut. Pinch open with three fingers to paste. A three-finger swipe left undoes, and a swipe right redoes. On iPadOS 27 you can also tap Undo at the top of the screen after the swipe.
The bigger screen helps here. On a phone, three fingers cover a lot of the screen. On an 11-inch or 13-inch iPad there’s room to pinch without landing on a link.
How do you copy and paste on an iPad with a keyboard?
With a Magic Keyboard, a Smart Keyboard or any Bluetooth keyboard, the shortcuts match a Mac’s. Apple’s iPad keyboard shortcuts page (updated September 14, 2026) lists these:
- Command+C copies.
- Command+V pastes.
- Command+X cuts.
- Command+A selects everything.
- Command+Z undoes, and Shift+Command+Z redoes.
If you came from Windows, Command does the job Control does on a PC. Ctrl+C on an iPad keyboard won’t copy.
To paste without dragging in the original font and color, Apple lists Option+Shift+Command+V as “paste and match the style of the destination text” in Pages for iPad. Apple only documents that shortcut for Pages. Other apps may use a different one or have none, so check the app’s menu. Our guide on pasting without formattinghas the workarounds for apps that don’t offer it.
Finding an app’s shortcuts
Each app lists its own shortcuts in the menu bar, and how you open it depends on your version. On iPadOS 27, tap the app name next to the date in the top left corner. On iPadOS 26, swipe down from the middle of the top edge, or push the pointer to the top edge. Both need Windowed Apps or Stage Manager turned on. On iPadOS 18 and earlier, hold the Command key for a second and a list pops up.
The Magic Keyboard’s trackpad works for selection too. Click and drag across text to select it. If a two-finger click does nothing, turn on Two Finger Secondary Clickunder Settings > General > Trackpad, which is where Apple’s Magic Keyboard page puts it.
Drag and drop between apps
This is the part of iPad copy and paste that a phone can’t match. Put two apps on screen, touch and hold a photo or a block of selected text until it lifts up, and drag it into the other app. Dragging between apps makes a copy. Dragging inside one app moves the item instead.
To get two apps on screen in iPadOS 26 and later, open Settings, tap Multitasking & Gestures, and choose Windowed Apps. Then flick one window to the left edge and another to the right, or drag an app from the Dock to the edge of the screen. Apple’s multitasking page covers both. It also says Slide Over needs iPadOS 26.2 or later. Stage Manager works for dragging as well. On iPadOS 18 and earlier, use Split View.
A few drag tricks that save time:
- Drag onto an app that isn’t open.Hold the item, swipe up from the bottom edge with another finger to show the Dock, and hover over the app’s icon. It opens, and you drop the item where you want it.
- Carry several items at once.Start dragging one photo, then tap more photos with another finger. A badge shows how many you’re holding.
- Open the target first. If you want a picture in a new email, start the email before you drag.
- Change your mind by dragging the item off the screen.
Apple says plainly that not every third-party app supports drag and drop. If an app won’t take a drop, copy and paste still works.
How do you copy text from a photo on an iPad?
Live Text reads the words in a picture. Open a photo or pause a video that has text in it, then tap the Live Text button. Touch and hold the text, adjust the grab points, and tap Copy Text. It also works in Safari, Quick Look and the Camera app. If you can’t find the button, check Settings > General > Language & Region and make sure Live Text is on. Apple’s Live Text pagealso says the feature isn’t supported on the iPad (8th generation).
To copy a whole image rather than its words, touch and hold the picture and tap Copy. For scanned documents and trickier cases, see how to copy text from a picture.
Copy and paste in Procreate
Procreate has its own menu, and the iPad’s pinch gestures aren’t how you reach it. Drag three fingers down the canvas and the Copy & Paste menuappears. It has Cut, Copy, Copy All, Duplicate, Cut & Paste and Paste. Copy takes the current layer. Copy All flattens every visible layer into one image, which is usually what you want before pasting your drawing into another app.
Copy on the iPad, paste on a Mac or iPhone
Universal Clipboard lets you copy on the iPad and paste on your iPhone or Mac, or the other way round. There’s nothing to open. You copy as usual, then paste on the other device. Apple’s requirements are the same Apple Account on both devices, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Handoff turned on. The devices also need to be within about 30 feet (10 meters) of each other. Apple saysthe copy stays there “briefly”, or until you copy something else.
When it fails, nothing tells you. You just paste whatever was on the device before. We keep the fixes in Universal Clipboard not working. A VPN is easy to overlook. Apple’s own page warns that a VPN can block local networking.
Universal Clipboard only carries your latest copy between Apple devices, and the iPad itself only remembers that one item. If you want the things you copy kept, searchable and synced to a Windows PC or an Android phone too, our app Relic can do that. The same app runs on iPhone and iPad. Because iPadOS doesn’t let any app watch the clipboard in the background, you send things in from the share sheet or a Shortcut. Our clipboard history for iPhone and iPad page explains how it works.
Why won’t copy and paste work on my iPad?
- There’s no Paste button. Tap once in the text field to put the cursor there, then tap the cursor. Paste only shows up once something has been copied.
- An app keeps asking to “Allow Paste”. Since iPadOS 16.1, each app has a Paste from Other Apps setting with Ask, Deny and Allow. Find the app in Settings and switch it to Allow if you trust it.
- Ctrl+C does nothing.That’s expected. Copy on an iPad keyboard uses the Command key, the same as on a Mac.
- A drag won’t drop. The receiving app may not support drag and drop. Copy and paste instead.
- The three-finger pinch doesn’t copy.Some apps use three-finger gestures for their own tools. Procreate is one of them. Use the app’s own menu there.
- Nothing arrives on the Mac. Check that both devices use the same Apple Account and have Handoff turned on.
The Mac, Android and Chromebook versions each have their own guide, all linked from how to copy and paste.
Sources
- Select, edit, and move text on iPad, Apple Support
- Learn iPad keyboard shortcuts, Apple Support (2026)
- Move and copy items with drag and drop on iPad, Apple Support
- Multitask on iPad, Apple Support (2026)
- Interact with content in a photo or video on iPad, Apple Support
- Copy and paste between iPad and other Apple devices, Apple Support
- Keyboard shortcuts for Pages on iPad, Apple Support
- Copy Paste Menu, Procreate Handbook