How to copy text from a screenshot on Windows 11 with Snipping Tool

By Saadat Rafiq · 2 min read · 4 steps · Published 6 October 2026

Device

Windows

Shown on

Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2 (build 26200.9457), Microsoft Cloud PC

Real screenshots

4 of 4 steps

Checked

October 2026

Sources

1 official, linked below

Step by step

1. 

   Open Snipping Tool and click New

   Open Start, type Snipping Tool and open it. Click New and drag around the text you need.

   Done

2. 

   Click Scan text

   The snip opens in the editor. Click Scan text in the toolbar at the top; older versions call this button Text actions.

   Done

3. 

   Copy all text

   The text in the snip is highlighted and a bar appears with Copy all text, Copy as table and Quick redact. Click Copy all text. Copy as table only works when the snip holds a table.

   Done

4. 

   Paste it

   Paste with Ctrl + V. In Notepad, our snip of the BitLocker page came out as 320 characters of plain text, line by line.

   Done

About this guide

Snipping Tool can read the text in a picture, so you can copy words from an error message, a scanned page or a video frame instead of typing them out.

The screenshots are our own, taken on Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2 (build 26200.9457) running as a Microsoft Cloud PC, a Windows PC that runs in the cloud. The Settings app is the same on Home and Pro PCs; where the Cloud PC shows something different, the step says so.

Good to know

To copy only part of the text, select it with the mouse in the highlighted snip and press Ctrl + C.

The capture bar has a Text extractor button too, which copies text straight from the screen without saving a picture.

What changed: in our version (Windows 11 25H2, October 2026) the button is called Scan text; it was Text actions before.

In short: Snipping Tool, New, snip the text, Scan text, Copy all text, Ctrl + V.