Complete Alacritty keyboard shortcuts reference — 19 shortcuts across 2 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows & Mac.
Alacritty is a minimal, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator focused on speed. It ships with a small set of default bindings plus a Vi mode for keyboard-driven scrollback navigation. Learning its keyboard shortcuts can dramatically speed up your workflow — studies show shortcut users save an average of 8 days per year compared to mouse-only users.
This page covers all 19 Alacritty shortcuts across 2 categories: General (13), Vi Mode (6). Each shortcut includes a description to help you understand when and how to use it effectively.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Shift + C | Copy |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | Paste |
| Ctrl + Shift + F | Search forward |
| Ctrl + Shift + B | Search backward |
| Ctrl + Shift + N | New window |
| Ctrl + = | Increase font size |
| Ctrl + - | Decrease font size |
| Ctrl + 0 | Reset font size |
| F11 | Toggle fullscreen |
| Shift + PageUp | Scroll page up |
| Shift + PageDown | Scroll page down |
| Shift + Home | Scroll to top |
| Shift + End | Scroll to bottom |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Shift + Space | Toggle Vi mode |
| V | Start selection |
| Y | Copy selection |
| G | Scrollback top/bottom |
| I | Leave Vi mode |
| Esc | Clear selection |
Alacritty's 19 shortcuts on this page are organized into 2 categories: General (13), Vi Mode (6). General is the largest group with 13 shortcuts — a good place to focus first if you're building muscle memory from scratch.
A few of these aren't Alacritty-specific — they're shared across tools: Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy, also in Chrome); Ctrl + Shift + V (Paste, also in Premiere Pro); Ctrl + Shift + F (Search forward, also in VS Code). Learning them here pays off well beyond Alacritty itself.
New to Alacritty? Start with General above — it's usually where the shortcuts you'll reach for constantly live. Once those feel automatic, work through Vi Mode to round out your workflow.
Want this on paper? The printable cheat sheet turns these 19 shortcuts into a one-page PDF you can pin above your desk. Prefer to learn by doing? Shortcut Speedrun turns memorization into a timed typing challenge with a global leaderboard, so you find out which Alacritty shortcuts you actually remember under pressure.
The most essential Alacritty shortcuts are: Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy), Ctrl + Shift + V (Paste), Ctrl + Shift + F (Search forward). These cover the most frequent actions and can significantly speed up your workflow.
Alacritty has 19 keyboard shortcuts across 2 categories on shortcut-tools.com.
Simply press the key combination while Alacritty is focused. Most shortcuts work immediately. On Mac, replace Ctrl with Cmd and Alt with Option for most shortcuts.
The Alacritty shortcut for copy is Ctrl + Shift + C.
Alacritty includes 13 General shortcuts, including Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy) and Ctrl + Shift + V (Paste). See the full list in the General section above.
Print the Alacritty cheat sheet and keep it next to your keyboard for the first week, then switch to active recall: open Shortcut Speedrun and practice Alacritty shortcuts against the clock until they're automatic.
Yes — use My Stack to combine Alacritty shortcuts with any other platform on this site into one printable reference, which is useful if your daily workflow spans several tools.
Most do not — the underlying key is the same, but Alacritty (like most software) maps Ctrl on Windows/Linux to Cmd on Mac for standard operations. Where a shortcut is platform-specific, this page notes the Mac variant next to the Windows one.
Start with the essentials: Learn Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy) and Ctrl + Shift + V (Paste) first — these are the most commonly used.
Practice daily: Pick 2–3 new shortcuts each day and consciously use them instead of the mouse. Within a week, they become muscle memory.
Print this cheat sheet: Keep a reference nearby until shortcuts become automatic. Focus on the General category first.
CLI tip: Create shell aliases for the commands you use most. Combine them with these shortcuts for maximum efficiency.