Three very different ways to upgrade the Windows clipboard. Here's an honest comparison — including where each one genuinely wins.
| ClipLens | PowerToys Advanced Paste | Ditto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · Pro $3.99/mo | Free (AI: bring your own API key) | Free, open source |
| Persistent history | ✓ Unlimited, survives reboots | ✕ Relies on Win+V (25 items, resets) | ✓ Unlimited, survives reboots |
| Auto-categorization | ✓ URLs, code, colors, emails, paths… | ✕ | ✕ Manual groups |
| Smart contextual actions | ✓ Color palettes, JSON validation, math, QR | ~ Paste-time format conversion | ✕ |
| AI features | ✓ Search, explain, translate, rewrite | ✓ Paste transformations | ✕ |
| AI setup required | None — free local (Ollama) or Pro (zero config) | API key — create an account at your AI provider, generate and paste a key | — |
| Where AI runs | Your machine (free) or a single clip sent per action (Pro) | Your configured provider (cloud or local model) | — |
| History encrypted at rest | ✓ AES-256, key protected by Windows | — (no history of its own) | ~ Unencrypted database by default |
| Ignores password managers | ✓ v0.2.0+ (Bitwarden, 1Password, KeePass flag) | — (no history of its own) | ✓ |
| Blocks likely secrets (API keys, cards…) | ✓ Pattern detection before storage | — | ✕ |
| Open source | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cross-device sync | ✕ (local by design) | ✕ | ~ LAN sync |
Comparison based on publicly documented features as of 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.
you want a rock-solid, open-source clipboard history and nothing more. It's been excellent since 2004 and it's completely free. No AI, no categorization — and that's fine for many people.
you already live in PowerToys, you're comfortable creating an AI provider account and managing an API key, and you don't need a persistent history — just smarter pasting.
you want the full package: persistent categorized history, smart actions, and AI that works out of the box — free and 100% local via Ollama, or zero-setup with Pro. All encrypted, all private.
Your clipboard is the most sensitive data stream on your computer: passwords, API keys, contracts, customer data — everything passes through it. That's why the community pushed back hard when AI paste tools started sending clipboard content to cloud providers.
Our position is simple: your history never leaves your machine. ClipLens stores it locally, encrypted with a key protected by Windows itself. The free AI runs on your own hardware through Ollama. If you use Pro, only the single clip you explicitly ask to transform is sent — never your history, never in the background. And copies coming from your password manager are never recorded at all.
They solve different problems. Advanced Paste transforms what you paste but keeps no persistent history and requires your own AI API key. ClipLens keeps a full encrypted history with auto-categorization, and its AI works out of the box.
Ditto is excellent and fully free — if a persistent searchable history is all you need, use it happily. ClipLens adds categorization, smart actions, default encryption and AI on top of a free history.
Ditto and ClipLens store everything locally. Advanced Paste sends clipboard content to your configured AI provider when you trigger an AI paste. ClipLens free AI is 100% local; Pro sends only the single clip you ask to transform.
ClipLens (v0.2.0+) honors the exclusion flag set by Bitwarden, 1Password and KeePass, blocks likely passwords, API keys and card numbers by pattern, and encrypts whatever it does store.
Free forever. No account. Your data stays on your machine.