How to search for text in screenshots on a Mac

You know you took a screenshot of that Wi-Fi password, that error message or that receipt, but the file is called “Screenshot 2026-10-14 at 09.41.22”. Searching by name won’t help. You need to search by the words in the picture.

Copy text from one image with Live Text

On recent versions of macOS, Live Text lets you select text in a picture:

1. Open the screenshot in Preview (or Quick Look it with the Space bar).
2. Move the pointer over the text. It changes to a text cursor.
3. Drag across the words, then press ⌘C.

That works well when you already have the right image open. It doesn’t help you find the image in the first place.

Search every screenshot by its text with Sleuth

Sleuth reads the text in your images and scanned PDFs on your Mac, using Apple’s Vision framework, and adds it to its search index. Nothing is uploaded.

• Search by a word on the image. Type screenshots with wifi password and Sleuth understands it as Screenshots plus the words “wifi” and “password”, then shows the screenshots that contain them.
• Narrow it down in plain words. screenshots from last week, pdfs from gmail, or pdfs over 5 mb each turn into filters you can see and remove.
• Copy the text out. Select one file or several and press ⇧⌘C to copy their text. With several files, each one’s text sits under its file name.
• From any app. Quick Search (⇧⌘Space by default; you can change it in Settings ▸ General) runs the same search in a small panel over whatever you’re doing.

Searching inside files, the text in images, Copy Text and Quick Search are part of Sleuth Pro. Search by name, kind, date, size and source stays free, and every feature is free during the free trial.

Tips for findable screenshots

• Keep screenshots in one place. In the Screenshot app (⇧⌘5), choose Options ▸ Save to and pick a folder.
• Sleuth’s automatic clean up can file screenshots into monthly folders for you. It’s off until you turn it on.