Snipping Tool for Mac: what to use instead
macOS has no app called Snipping Tool. The equivalent is built into the keyboard: press ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4 and drag to snip any region, or ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5 to open the capture toolbar with window, full-screen and screen-recording options. Snips save to your Desktop by default.
Every Mac snipping shortcut
These work on every modern version of macOS with no download and no app to install.
Crosshair — drag to snip any rectangular region. This is the closest match to the Windows Snipping Tool.
Turns the crosshair into a camera: click any window to capture it cleanly, with its shadow.
Captures the entire screen immediately.
Opens the capture toolbar: region, window, whole screen, plus screen recording, a timer, and the save-location menu.
Copies the snip to the clipboard instead of saving a file — paste it straight into Slack, Mail, or a doc.
Cancels the capture before you take it.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4 | Crosshair — drag to snip any rectangular region. This is the closest match to the Windows Snipping Tool. |
| ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4 then Space | Turns the crosshair into a camera: click any window to capture it cleanly, with its shadow. |
| ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 3 | Captures the entire screen immediately. |
| ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5 | Opens the capture toolbar: region, window, whole screen, plus screen recording, a timer, and the save-location menu. |
| Add ⌃ Control to any of the above | Copies the snip to the clipboard instead of saving a file — paste it straight into Slack, Mail, or a doc. |
| Esc | Cancels the capture before you take it. |
While dragging a selection you can hold Space to move the selection box, ⇧ Shift to lock one edge, or ⌥ Option to resize from the centre.
How to snip on a Mac, step by step
- 1Press ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4
The pointer becomes a crosshair with live coordinates. Nothing has been captured yet — press Esc any time to back out.
- 2Drag over what you want
Release the mouse or trackpad to take the snip. Hold Space mid-drag to reposition the whole selection instead of resizing it.
- 3Grab the thumbnail if you want to edit
A thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds. Click it to mark up, crop, or share the snip before it saves; ignore it and the file saves on its own.
- 4Find the file on your Desktop
It is saved as a PNG named after the moment you took it — for example “Screenshot 2026-08-16 at 3.42.15 PM.png”.
Change where snips are saved
The Desktop fills up fast. You can point captures at a folder instead.
- 1Open the capture toolbar
Press ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5, then choose Options. Pick any folder under “Save to”, or choose Other Location to select your own.
- 2Or set it from Terminal
If you prefer the command line, point the capture service at a folder and restart it:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots killall SystemUIServer
The part Windows never solved either
Taking the snip is the easy half. Both platforms leave you with the same mess a week later: a folder of near-identical PNGs named after timestamps, none of which tell you what is inside them.
The error message you screenshotted to send a colleague, the receipt, the seat map, the name on a badge — they are all in there, and the only way to find one is to scroll and squint. Neither the Snipping Tool nor macOS reads what is in your captures, so neither can search them.
Bunny ScreenshotSnip on the Mac, then actually find it again
Bunny Screenshot picks up where the shortcuts stop. It reads every capture on your Mac — the text inside it and what it shows — and gives each one a real title and tags, so you can search your screenshots by what they say instead of when you took them.
Captures are read on your Mac. It is local by default; the only network calls are the ones you choose.
- ✓Search by content: “that Stripe invoice” finds the screenshot, not the date
- ✓Automatic titles and tags instead of “Screenshot 2026-08-16 at 3.42.15 PM”
- ✓Text copy-out from any capture, including a clean Markdown copy
- ✓Results in Spotlight, and an MCP server so your AI tools can search them too
- ✓Free to use; no account, and macOS 26 or later on Apple silicon
Questions people ask
Does a Mac have a Snipping Tool?
Not as an app you open by name. macOS puts the same capability on keyboard shortcuts — ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4 for a region snip and ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5 for the capture toolbar — and there is also a Screenshot app in the Utilities folder that opens that same toolbar.
What is the Mac equivalent of the Snipping Tool?
⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4 is the direct equivalent: drag a box, get a PNG. If you want the Windows-style window with capture modes and options, use ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5, which is the Screenshot app.
How do I snip and paste without saving a file?
Hold ⌃ Control with the shortcut — for example ⌃ Control ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4. The snip goes to the clipboard, so you can paste it directly into a message or document and never touch a file.
Where do my snips go on a Mac?
The Desktop, unless you have changed it. Each file is a PNG named for the date and time it was taken. You can change the destination in the ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 5 toolbar under Options.
Can I snip a single window without the background?
Yes. Press ⇧ Shift ⌘ Cmd 4, then tap Space. The pointer becomes a camera; click the window you want and macOS captures just that window.