Best Free Text Expanders

Published by LazyBoard, with AI-assisted drafting. Free plans and store listings checked between October 27 and November 7, 2026. We make LazyBoard, which has a free plan and an optional subscription, and have not run a hands-on benchmark of every product. Limits change; the vendor pages are the source for current terms.

Free forever or free plan?

“Free text expander” covers two different things. Open-source tools such as Espanso, AutoHotkey, Beeftext, and ProKeys cost nothing and have no snippet limit; you trade away a visual editor, official support, or regular updates. Free plans of commercial apps are polished and supported but capped, usually by the number of snippets, and sync between devices is the most common paid feature. PhraseExpress sits in between: the full program is free for private, non-commercial use only.

Compare the free options

Best free pick for each platform

• Windows: Espanso, or AutoHotkey if you want scripts. LazyBoard’s Free plan gives you a visual library from the Microsoft Store. Windows has no built-in text replacement. See best text expanders for Windows.
• Mac: built-in Text Replacements for simple shortcuts, then Espanso, Raycast, or LazyBoard’s Free plan when you need them in more apps. See best text expanders for Mac.
• Chrome and Chromebook: LazyBoard, Briskine, and Text Blaze have free plans; ProKeys is free and open source. See best text expanders for Chrome.
• Linux: Espanso is the option here that runs on Linux.
• iPhone and Android: the built-in text replacement on iPhone and the shortcuts in Gboard and Samsung Keyboard cost nothing. LazyBoard’s phone keyboard is free to download, with in-app purchases for more features.

Completely free tools

Espanso — free on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Espanso is open source under the GPL-3 license, with no paid tier. Snippets live in YAML files and can include forms, dates, and scripts, and a search bar (Alt Space, or Option Space on Mac) finds a snippet when you forget its trigger. The files are easy to back up and sync with your own cloud folder; the trade-off is that there is no visual editor yet. See Espanso alternatives if you would rather click.

AutoHotkey — free scripts on Windows

AutoHotkey hotstrings turn an abbreviation into text, and the same script can automate almost anything else on Windows. Every change means editing a script file. Our Windows shortcut guide has a ready-to-copy AutoHotkey v2 example.

Beeftext — simple, but no longer developed

Beeftext is a free Windows app for plain-text shortcuts with a simple editor. Its last release was in December 2022, so weigh that before relying on it for work.

ProKeys — a free Chrome extension

ProKeys is free and open source, with 70,000 users on the Chrome Web Store. Its developer states that it does not collect your data. It was last updated on June 27, 2024, and its listing says it does not work in Google Docs, Messenger, Quora, or Facebook comments.

Free plans of paid apps

LazyBoard — 10 snippets on Mac, Windows, and Chrome

LazyBoard’s Free plan keeps 10 snippets in 3 folders, with abbreviations, fill-in fields, and a snippet picker you can search. It works offline and needs no account or credit card. Pro (US$30 a year) adds unlimited snippets and sync between the Mac app, Windows app, and Chrome extension. There are no if/then rules or team workspace.

Add LazyBoard to Chrome

Raycast — free snippets in a launcher

Raycast is a launcher for Mac and Windows whose Free plan includes snippets that expand by keyword, alongside clipboard history and window management. Cloud Sync needs Pro at US$96 a year, which includes Raycast AI.

Briskine — 30 free email templates

Briskine is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. Its Free plan covers 30 templates for one person, and it can fill an email’s subject and recipients as well as the body. Premium is US$7 per person a month.

Text Blaze — try forms for free

Text Blaze has a free-forever plan with a limited number of snippets and lets you test form fields. Full forms, if/then rules, and images need Pro at US$2.99 a month billed yearly.

TextExpander — 5 active snippets, synced everywhere

TextExpander’s Free plan stores any number of snippets but keeps only 5 active at once, and you can swap one active snippet every two weeks. It does sync those snippets across Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Chrome. See TextExpander pricing for what Pro adds.

PhraseExpress — free for private use

PhraseExpress is covered by freeware terms for private, non-commercial use, with forms and macros that go well beyond text, most fully on Windows. Using it for work needs a one-time license. See PhraseExpress alternatives.

Already on your devices

• Mac, iPhone, and iPad: Text Replacements in Settings, synced through iCloud. They do not work in every app; see Mac and iPhone fixes.
• Android: Gboard’s personal dictionary and Samsung Keyboard’s text shortcuts. See Android text shortcuts not working.
• Microsoft Word and Outlook: AutoCorrect and Quick Parts, inside Office only. See Outlook Quick Parts not working.
• Gmail and Google Docs: Gmail templates and Docs substitutions, inside each app only. See Google Docs substitutions not working.
• Windows: no text replacement list. PowerToys Keyboard Manager can make a key combination type a phrase; see how to make a keyboard shortcut type text.

When free stops being enough

Most people pay for one of five things: sync so the same library works on a second computer or in the browser, more snippets than a free plan allows, forms and rules for structured templates, team sharing, or support. If you would rather pay once than subscribe, see text expanders without a subscription; to compare everything, including paid-only tools, see the 10 best text expanders.

Common questions

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