{
  "@context": [
    "https://schema.org",
    {
      "nuanyue": "https://www.nuanyue.com/ns#"
    }
  ],
  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
  "@id": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/snipaste/#software",
  "name": "Snipaste",
  "description": "Screenshot tool built around pinning: snip with F1, then paste the capture back on screen as a floating window you can zoom, rotate, annotate and click through.",
  "url": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/snipaste/",
  "mainEntityOfPage": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/snipaste/",
  "operatingSystem": "macOS",
  "applicationCategory": "DesignApplication",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.snipaste.com"
  ],
  "softwareVersion": "2.11.3",
  "license": "proprietary",
  "nuanyue:record": {
    "schemaVersion": 1,
    "id": "software:snipaste",
    "slug": "snipaste",
    "name": "Snipaste",
    "type": "SoftwareApplication",
    "entityType": "screenshot tool",
    "description": "Screenshot tool built around pinning: snip with F1, then paste the capture back on screen as a floating window you can zoom, rotate, annotate and click through.",
    "shortDescription": "Screenshot tool that pins captures as floating windows.",
    "answer": "Snipaste is a screenshot tool organised around one idea: after you snip, you paste the capture back onto the screen as a floating window that stays on top of everything else. That is the feature the name describes and the reason it has to run in the background — it is a paste tool, not just a capture tool. The floating windows can be zoomed, rotated, flipped, made translucent and even made click-through, and they accept images, plain text, HTML, colour values and animated GIFs. Annotation covers shapes, a marker pen, mosaic and Gaussian blur. It is free for personal use; business use is free on 1.x but needs a paid licence from 2.0 onwards, and the site publishes no price.",
    "page": "https://www.nuanyue.com/software/snipaste/",
    "dataUrl": "https://www.nuanyue.com/data/software/snipaste.json",
    "categories": [
      "design"
    ],
    "tags": [],
    "platform": [
      "macOS"
    ],
    "minOsVersion": "macOS 10.13",
    "architecture": [
      "arm64",
      "x86_64"
    ],
    "featured": false,
    "pricing": "freemium",
    "pricingDescription": "Always free for personal use. For business use, Snipaste 1.x remains free, but from version 2.0 onwards a paid licence is required. The site states the rule without publishing a price.",
    "license": "proprietary",
    "currentVersion": "2.11.3",
    "releaseDate": "2026-01-18",
    "openSource": false,
    "website": "https://www.snipaste.com",
    "documentation": "https://docs.snipaste.com",
    "download": "https://download.snipaste.com/archives/Snipaste-2.11.3.dmg",
    "features": [
      "Snip with F1, then paste the capture back on screen with F3 as a floating always-on-top window",
      "Pins accept images, plain text, HTML text, colour values and image files including animated GIF",
      "Pinned windows zoom, rotate, flip, and can be made translucent or fully mouse click-through",
      "Grouping, with auto backup and restore of pinned windows between sessions",
      "Auto-detection of UI elements, with pixel-level control over the selection",
      "Colour picker, and colour-space options for accurate saved values",
      "History playback so an earlier snip can be recovered",
      "Annotation with rectangle, ellipse, linestrip, arrow, pencil, marker pen and text",
      "Mosaic, Gaussian blur and eraser for hiding parts of an image",
      "Multi-screen and HiDPI display support"
    ],
    "useCases": [
      "Keeping a reference image, an error message or a colour value on screen while working in another app",
      "Comparing two things side by side by pinning both and placing them together",
      "Grabbing a colour value from anywhere on screen",
      "Annotating a capture with mosaic or blur before sharing it",
      "Turning clipboard text or an image file into a floating window"
    ],
    "formats": [],
    "integrations": [],
    "pros": [
      {
        "text": "Free for personal use, and free for business use too on the 1.x line.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Pinned windows are the point: a capture stays on screen, on top, and can be zoomed, rotated, made translucent or clicked through.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Pins accept more than images — plain text, HTML, colour values and animated GIFs all become floating windows.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Runs on macOS 10.13 and later, so it works on Macs most screenshot tools have dropped.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "A single universal build covers Apple Silicon and Intel.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "cons": [
      {
        "text": "Has to stay running in the background to work, which the developer states is unavoidable given the paste model.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "Business use needs a paid licence from 2.0, and no price is published.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "No scrolling capture, no GIF recording and no OCR on the Mac version.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "No company name is published, so there is no named counterparty for a business licence.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "whoIsItFor": [
      "People who work from a reference — designers, developers, writers comparing drafts",
      "Anyone who wants a lightweight snipping tool rather than a full screenshot suite",
      "Users on older Macs, since it runs on macOS 10.13 and later"
    ],
    "notFor": [
      "Anyone who needs scrolling capture, GIF recording or OCR, which the Mac version does not have",
      "Users who want it to run only when needed — it has to stay in the background to work as a paste tool",
      "Businesses that need a published price, since the site states the licence rule but no figure"
    ],
    "limitations": [
      "Must stay running in the background. The developer states plainly that it cannot be a pure snipping tool, because paste requires it to be resident",
      "Business use requires a paid licence from version 2.0 onwards, and the site publishes no price for it",
      "Scrolling capture and GIF recording are not in the Mac version; the developer tracks Mac progress separately from Windows",
      "No OCR, so text cannot be pulled out of a capture",
      "No legal entity is published anywhere: the site, the com.Snipaste bundle identifier and the GitHub organisation are all just 'Snipaste'",
      "The download page states no minimum macOS version; the 10.13 floor recorded here comes from the shipped 2.11.3 bundle"
    ],
    "firstUse": {
      "installation": {
        "value": "Download the disk image from snipaste.com — there is one Universal build covering both architectures — open it and drag Snipaste into Applications.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "firstLaunch": {
        "value": "Snipaste registers global hotkeys: F1 to snip and F3 to paste the capture as a floating window. The developer's advice for a new user is to enable Run on system boot, change the hotkeys, and leave everything else at its default.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "systemIntegration": {
        "value": "Runs from the menu bar and stays resident, because paste requires it. It registers global hotkeys and needs Screen Recording permission to capture.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "appleSilicon": {
        "value": true,
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    },
    "updates": [
      {
        "version": "2.11.3",
        "date": "2026-01-18",
        "summary": "Current release, published as a single Universal macOS build.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official"
      },
      {
        "version": "2.11",
        "date": "2025-12-08",
        "summary": "Feature line that fixed context menu display when right-clicking an inactive image window on Mac and Linux.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official"
      },
      {
        "version": "2.10.6",
        "date": "2025-03-19",
        "summary": "Added a colour space option for the picker, sRGB by default, and fixed colour discrepancies when saving PNG and WebP files on Mac.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official"
      }
    ],
    "faq": [
      {
        "question": "Is Snipaste free?",
        "answer": "For personal use, always. For business use, Snipaste 1.x remains free, but from version 2.0 onwards a paid licence is required. The site states the rule without publishing a price.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Which macOS version does Snipaste need?",
        "answer": "The shipped 2.11.3 build declares macOS 10.13 as its minimum. The download page states no requirement at all.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Does Snipaste run natively on Apple Silicon?",
        "answer": "Yes. Since 2.6 the macOS download has been a single Universal build, and the 2.11.3 bundle contains both arm64 and x86_64.",
        "status": "verified",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Why does Snipaste have to stay running in the background?",
        "answer": "Because it is designed as a paste tool, not only a snipping tool. The developer states directly that you can use it just for snipping but cannot demand that it be a pure snipping tool — paste requires it to be resident.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Does the Mac version have scrolling capture, GIF recording or OCR?",
        "answer": "No. The developer tracks Mac, Linux, scrolling capture and GIF recording as separate work, published on the project's feedback repository. OCR is not among the documented features.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "documentation",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "question": "Can I pin something other than a screenshot?",
        "answer": "Yes. A pin can be created from an image, plain text, HTML text, a colour value, or an image file including animated GIF. GIF pins can be sped up and stepped frame by frame.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "source": "official",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "relationships": [
      {
        "target": "shottr",
        "type": "competitor",
        "reason": "Both take and annotate screenshots on macOS, but Shottr adds scrolling capture and OCR while Snipaste is built around pinning captures as floating windows.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "target": "macshot",
        "type": "competitor",
        "reason": "Both are Mac screenshot and annotation tools, but macshot is GPL-3.0 and adds recording, PII redaction and OCR, while Snipaste is closed source and centred on pinning.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "target": "cleanshot-x",
        "type": "competitor",
        "reason": "Both capture and annotate screenshots with sharing built in, but CleanShot X is a paid app with cloud hosting and a much broader feature set while Snipaste is free for personal use and local.",
        "verifiedAt": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "sources": [
      {
        "id": "snipaste:official",
        "type": "official_website",
        "url": "https://www.snipaste.com",
        "title": "Snipaste — official website",
        "trustLevel": "B",
        "accessedAt": null
      },
      {
        "id": "snipaste:documentation",
        "type": "documentation",
        "url": "https://docs.snipaste.com",
        "title": "Snipaste — documentation",
        "trustLevel": "C",
        "accessedAt": null
      }
    ],
    "claims": [
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        "id": "software:snipaste.isA",
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      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.supportsPlatform",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.officialWebsite",
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      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.listedInCategory",
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      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.pricingModel",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.ownership",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.licensedUnder",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.currentVersion",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.hasFeature",
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          "Colour picker, and colour-space options for accurate saved values",
          "History playback so an earlier snip can be recovered",
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        "value": [
          "Anyone who needs scrolling capture, GIF recording or OCR, which the Mac version does not have",
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      },
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        "id": "software:snipaste.limitation",
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          "Business use requires a paid licence from version 2.0 onwards, and the site publishes no price for it",
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          "No OCR, so text cannot be pulled out of a capture",
          "No legal entity is published anywhere: the site, the com.Snipaste bundle identifier and the GitHub organisation are all just 'Snipaste'",
          "The download page states no minimum macOS version; the 10.13 floor recorded here comes from the shipped 2.11.3 bundle"
        ],
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        "lastVerified": null
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.advantage.0",
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        "value": "Free for personal use, and free for business use too on the 1.x line.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
          "snipaste:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.advantage.1",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Pinned windows are the point: a capture stays on screen, on top, and can be zoomed, rotated, made translucent or clicked through.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "snipaste:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.advantage.2",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Pins accept more than images — plain text, HTML, colour values and animated GIFs all become floating windows.",
        "status": "developer-stated",
        "sourceIds": [
          "snipaste:official"
        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.advantage.3",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "Runs on macOS 10.13 and later, so it works on Macs most screenshot tools have dropped.",
        "status": "verified",
        "sourceIds": [
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        ],
        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.advantage.4",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
        "predicate": "advantage",
        "value": "A single universal build covers Apple Silicon and Intel.",
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        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
      },
      {
        "id": "software:snipaste.drawback.0",
        "subject": "software:snipaste",
        "predicate": "drawback",
        "value": "Has to stay running in the background to work, which the developer states is unavoidable given the paste model.",
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        "value": "Business use needs a paid licence from 2.0, and no price is published.",
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        "id": "software:snipaste.drawback.2",
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        "value": "No scrolling capture, no GIF recording and no OCR on the Mac version.",
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        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
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        "value": "No company name is published, so there is no named counterparty for a business licence.",
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        "lastVerified": "2026-10-05"
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    "lastUpdated": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z",
    "lastReviewedAt": null
  }
}