Verbatch is a free Chrome extension for copying visible web content. When a website disables text selection, blocks right-click, interferes with Ctrl+C, or changes what lands on your clipboard, Verbatch helps restore normal copying.
No account. No analytics. Works with client-side restrictions on content your browser has already loaded.
Museums have quietly become one of the last places built for slowness. Select this sentence and copy it — nothing here is locked away, it's just being tested against a copy handler.
See how copy interference can change clipboard content. This is an illustration that runs on this page; it simulates a site that adds a line to your copied text when Verbatch is off. Nothing you select here is sent anywhere. If the Verbatch extension is installed, it also works on this page, so your real clipboard may differ from what the demo shows.
The problem
Most pages let you select text, press Ctrl+C, and paste exactly what you selected. Some don't. When a website won't let you copy, the cause is usually client-side: CSS, JavaScript event handlers, invisible overlays or clipboard scripts running in your own browser as part of the page.
A page can switch off text selection with CSS (user-select: none), cancel the selection event, or lay an invisible layer over the text so clicks never reach it. You drag across the paragraph and nothing highlights.
Scripts can cancel the context menu so the browser's right-click menu never appears. That takes away the usual Copy item, even when the text itself is selectable.
Some pages intercept the keyboard shortcut or cancel the copy event, so the key press does nothing and your clipboard stays empty or unchanged.
Other pages let you copy but rewrite the result: they append a "Read more at" line, add attribution, or cut your selection short. What you paste isn't what you selected.
Verbatch is designed to address these client-side restrictions in content your browser has already loaded. It does not get around restrictions enforced by a server; see what Verbatch does not do.
How it works
On pages that don't restrict copying, Verbatch stays out of the way. When a page does interfere, it steps in with four simple moves.
Verbatch looks for common client-side restrictions: text selection turned off with CSS, inline copy and right-click blocking attributes, invisible layers covering the page, and copy handlers that cancel or change what you copied.
When it finds one, it restores normal selection and copy behavior for that page: re-enabling text selection, clearing inline blockers, stepping past copy and right-click blocking scripts, and letting clicks reach the text under an invisible layer.
Your selection reaches the clipboard as you selected it. If a page altered the clipboard, Verbatch restores your selection. You can also copy through Verbatch's direct copy path: right-click, keyboard shortcut or the toolbar popup.
All of this runs in your browser. Verbatch has no server of its own and makes no network requests. Settings and the optional Copy History stay on your device.
Features
Automatic detection handles common cases. These controls cover the rest, and let you decide how the text arrives on your clipboard.
When automatic detection doesn't catch a restriction, turn on stronger copy protection handling yourself: for the current page from the Verbatch popup, for specific sites in your Force Copy list, or on all sites in Settings. Apps with their own clipboard handling, like Google Docs, Gmail and Notion, are left alone unless you opt in.
Select text, open the Verbatch popup and choose Copy selection. Verbatch reads your selection and writes it to the clipboard directly, instead of depending on the page's own copy handling.
Select text on a page that blocks Ctrl+C, then use Right-click → Copy with Verbatch. The menu item appears whenever text is selected.
Copy the current selection straight from the keyboard:
If another tool already uses this combination, you can change it in Chrome's extension shortcut settings.
Clean Copy normalizes whitespace and blank lines — extra spaces, stray non-breaking spaces, long runs of empty lines — while keeping your paragraph breaks. It's a separate, explicit action, so ordinary copying is never changed silently.
Choose Markdown in Settings to copy to Markdown: headings, bold, italic, links and lists are converted for pasting into notes and docs, along with code, quotes and simple tables.
Prefer formatting? Rich text copy keeps the structure of your selection for editors that accept it, with plain text alongside. The HTML option copies the selection's HTML source as text.
Optional and off by default. When you turn it on, recent copies are stored locally in your browser so you can search them and copy them again. It is not a cloud clipboard and nothing is synced or uploaded.
Turn Force Copy on for the sites that need it, or tell Verbatch never to run on a site at all. Rules are plain domain lists in Settings.
Boundaries
Verbatch works with content that is already available in the browser.
If you can't see it in your browser, Verbatch can't copy it.
Verbatch processes visible webpage content locally to help restore normal copying when a page interferes with text selection or clipboard behavior. Here is what that means in practice:
The detailed policy is the authoritative document: read the full Privacy Policy.
FAQ
Install Verbatch from the Chrome Web Store, then select the text and copy as usual. On most restricted pages Verbatch detects the restriction and restores normal selection and copying automatically. If it doesn't, open the Verbatch popup and turn on Force Copy for the page, or select the text and use Right-click → Copy with Verbatch, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + C (Command + Shift + C on macOS).
Some pages use client-side code to get in the way: CSS that disables text selection, JavaScript that blocks right-click or Ctrl+C, invisible layers placed over the text, or scripts that replace what you copy. These run in your own browser, which is why a browser extension can address them.
Verbatch can re-enable selection and copying on pages that block them with client-side code. Automatic detection covers common cases. Force Copy is the manual override: turn it on for the current page from the popup, or add a site to your Force Copy list in Settings.
In many cases, yes. Some pages intercept the copy event and add a "Read more at…" line or replace your clipboard. Verbatch compares what ends up on the clipboard with what you selected and restores your selection if the page changed it. When you copy through Verbatch directly (right-click, shortcut or popup), it writes your selection to the clipboard itself.
No. Verbatch does not bypass paywalls, sign-in requirements, CAPTCHAs or DRM. It works with content that is already available in the browser. If a site withholds content until you pay or log in, Verbatch cannot retrieve it.
Verbatch only works with what is already displayed in a page you can view in your browser, and only when you copy. It does not bypass access controls, read cookies or sign-in credentials, or access account data. If you turn on Copy History, text you copy from any page, including private ones, is saved on your device until you delete it.
Not by default. Copy History is optional and off by default. If you turn it on, copies are saved locally in your browser along with the site's domain, the page title and the time, up to 300 entries. You can search it, delete single entries or clear everything. The extension does not upload or sync it.
Verbatch is currently available free of charge.
No. There is no sign-up and no login.
No. The extension has no server of its own and contains no code that makes network requests or sends copied text anywhere. See the Privacy Policy for the full details.
No. Verbatch addresses client-side restrictions in content your browser has already loaded. It cannot copy content a server never sent, restrictions enforced by a server, or text that is not real text on the page, such as text drawn into an image. Web apps with their own clipboard handling, like Google Docs, Gmail and Notion, are left alone unless you choose to turn Verbatch on for them.
Yes. Verbatch is a Chrome extension for Google Chrome 110 or newer, installed from the Chrome Web Store.
Add Verbatch to Chrome and select, right-click and copy the way the web is supposed to work.
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