How to Vim: Many Ways to Paste

Most Vim users know p and P – paste after and before the cursor. Simple enough. But did you know that Vim actually has around a dozen paste commands, each with subtly different behavior? I certainly didn’t when I started using Vim, and I was surprised when I discovered the full picture.

Let’s take a tour of all the ways to paste in Vim, starting with Normal mode and then moving to Insert mode.

Normal Mode

One important thing to understand first – it’s all about the register type. Vim registers don’t just store text, they also track how that text was yanked or deleted. There are three register types (see :help registers):

• Characterwise (e.g., yw): p inserts text to the right of the cursor, P to the left.
• Linewise (e.g., yy, dd): p inserts text on a new line below, P on a new line above. The cursor position within the line doesn’t matter.
• Blockwise (e.g., Ctrl-V selection): text is inserted as a rectangular block starting at the cursor column.

This is something that trips up many Vim newcomers – the same p command can behave quite differently depending on the register type!

With that in mind, here’s the complete family of paste commands in Normal mode:

Command	Direction	Cursor Position	Indent	Notes
p	After cursor / below line	On last pasted char	None	The classic paste
P	Before cursor / above line	On last pasted char	None	The other classic paste
gp	After cursor / below line	After pasted text	None	Great for chaining pastes
gP	Before cursor / above line	After pasted text	None	Closest to “normal editor” paste
]p	After cursor / below line	On last pasted char	Adjusts to current line	My favorite for code
[p	Before cursor / above line	On last pasted char	Adjusts to current line	Like ]p, but before
zp	After cursor / below line	On last pasted char	None	No trailing spaces (blockwise)
zP	Before cursor / above line	On last pasted char	None	No trailing spaces (blockwise)

The “Direction” column above reflects both cases – for characterwise text it’s “after/before the cursor”, for linewise text it’s “below/above the current line”.

How to pick the right paste command? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The difference between p/P and gp/gP is all about where your cursor ends up. With p the cursor lands on the last character of the pasted text, while with gp it moves just past the pasted text. This makes gp handy when you want to paste something and continue editing right after it.
• ]p and [p are incredibly useful when pasting code – they automatically adjust the indentation of the pasted text to match the current line. No more pasting followed by = to fix indentation!¹
• zp and zP are the most niche – they only matter when pasting blockwise selections, where they avoid adding trailing whitespace to pad shorter lines.

All Normal mode paste commands accept a count (e.g., 3p pastes three times) and a register prefix (e.g., "ap pastes from register a).

Insert Mode

In Insert mode things get interesting. All paste commands start with Ctrl-R, but the follow-up keystrokes determine how the text gets inserted:

Command	Chars Interpreted?	Respects textwidth?	Auto-indent?	Fixes Indent?
Ctrl-R {reg}	Yes (as-if-typed)	Yes	Yes	No
Ctrl-R Ctrl-R {reg}	No (literal)	Yes	Yes	No
Ctrl-R Ctrl-O {reg}	No (literal)	No	No	No
Ctrl-R Ctrl-P {reg}	No (literal)	No	No	Yes

Let me unpack this a bit:

• Ctrl-R {reg} is the most common one – you press Ctrl-R and then a register name (e.g., ", a, + for the system clipboard). The text is inserted as if you typed it, which means textwidth and auto-indentation apply. This can be surprising if your pasted code gets reformatted unexpectedly.
• Ctrl-R Ctrl-R {reg} inserts the text literally – special characters like backspace won’t be interpreted. However, textwidth and auto-indent still apply.
• Ctrl-R Ctrl-O {reg} is the “raw paste” – no interpretation, no formatting, no auto-indent. What you see in the register is what you get. This is the one I’d recommend for pasting code in Insert mode.
• Ctrl-R Ctrl-P {reg} is like Ctrl-R Ctrl-O, but it adjusts the indentation to match the current context. Think of it as the Insert mode equivalent of ]p.

Note: Plain Ctrl-R {reg} can be a minor security concern when pasting from the system clipboard (+ or * registers), since control characters in the clipboard will be interpreted. When in doubt, use Ctrl-R Ctrl-O + instead.

Epilogue

And that’s a wrap! Admittedly, even I didn’t know some of those ways to paste before doing the research for this article. I’ve been using Vim quite a bit in the past year and I’m still amazed how many ways to paste are there!

If you want to learn more, check out :help p, :help gp, :help ]p, and :help i_CTRL-R in Vim’s built-in help. There’s always more to discover!

That’s all I have for you today. Keep hacking!

1. You can also use ]p and [p with a register, e.g. "]p to paste from register " with adjusted indentation. ↩