---
title: "Introduction to PowerPaste"
description: "The PowerPaste plugin automatically cleans up content from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and HTML sources."
canonical_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/introduction-to-powerpaste/"
md_url: "https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/introduction-to-powerpaste/index.md"
version: "latest"
last_updated: "2026-06-15T05:48:02Z"
tokens: 775
---
# Introduction to PowerPaste

> **Note:** This plugin is only available for [paid TinyMCE subscriptions](/pricing/).
The TinyMCE **PowerPaste** plugin automatically cleans up content from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and HTML sources to ensure clean, compliant content that matches the look and feel of the site.

> **Note:** Due to limitations in Microsoft Excel online (part of Office Live) PowerPaste does not support pasting from Microsoft Excel online. If you paste content using Microsoft Excel in Office Live you will get a plain text representation of the content.

## Try our PowerPaste plugin demo

**Example**

```js
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea#paste-from-word',
  height: 400,
  menubar: true,
  plugins: [
    'advlist', 'autolink', 'lists', 'link', 'image', 'charmap', 'preview',
    'anchor', 'searchreplace', 'visualblocks', 'advcode', 'fullscreen',
    'insertdatetime', 'media', 'table', 'powerpaste', 'code'
  ],
  toolbar: 'undo redo | insert | styles | bold italic | alignleft aligncenter alignright alignjustify | bullist numlist outdent indent | link image code',
  powerpaste_allow_local_images: true,
  powerpaste_word_import: 'prompt',
  powerpaste_html_import: 'prompt',
  content_style: 'body { font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size:16px }'
});
```

## Usage

The **PowerPaste** plugin activates automatically when users paste content into the editor. For basic usage, users are not required to take any action. Simply copy and paste content normally using keyboard shortcuts, the browser’s "Paste" menu item (including from the context menu), or the TinyMCE "Paste" toolbar button.

To paste clipboard content as plain text, users can click the "Paste As Text" toolbar button or menu item, then paste the content normally. The TinyMCE **PowerPaste** plugin will convert the HTML on the clipboard into plain text.

If you configure **PowerPaste** to allow local images (see the [`powerpaste_allow_local_images`](../powerpaste-options/#powerpaste_allow_local_images) setting below), then images copied from Microsoft Word and other sources will appear in TinyMCE as Base64 encoded images. You can have TinyMCE automatically upload Base64 encoded images for reverting back to a standard image as described in the [image upload documentation](../upload-images/).

> **Note:** PowerPaste (when configured to allow local images) will import images from pasted Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel content. When doing this, **PowerPaste** extracts Base64 encoded images from the clipboard. Images larger than approximately 8.5MB may fail to import based on technical limitations of web browsers.

## Cloud Installation

To enable the TinyMCE **PowerPaste** plugin with [Tiny Cloud](../editor-and-features/):

1. If you are currently using the `paste` plugin provided with TinyMCE, disable it by removing it from the `plugins` list.
2. Add `powerpaste` to the `plugins` list.

Example TinyMCE configuration:

```js
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: 'powerpaste'
});
```

## Self-hosted Installation

To enable the TinyMCE **PowerPaste** plugin:

1. If you are currently using the `paste` plugin provided with TinyMCE, disable it by removing it from the `plugins` list.
2. Add `powerpaste` to the `plugins` list in your TinyMCE configuration.

See the example TinyMCE configuration above.