Is there a grep command in PowerShell?

No. PowerShell uses Select-String instead, and its alias is sls. The Select-String documentation describes it as similar to grep on Unix or findstr on Windows.

What is the PowerShell equivalent of grep -r?

Pipe Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Logs -Recurse -File into Select-String -Pattern 'timeout'. Add -List to get each file only once, like grep -rl.

Is Select-String case-sensitive?

No. It ignores case by default and matches text inside words, unlike grep. Add -CaseSensitive, or use \bword\b to match whole words only.

How do I grep the output of a command in PowerShell?

Pipe it through Out-String -Stream first, for example Get-Service | Out-String -Stream | Select-String 'Running'. Without it, Select-String searches each object's ToString() text.

Can I use findstr instead of Select-String?

Yes, findstr /i /n "text" file.log runs in PowerShell too. It's case-sensitive by default and returns plain text; the findstr command reference lists every switch.

Grep in PowerShell: Select-String Examples and Options

PowerShell doesn’t ship a grep command, but Select-String does the same job. Give it a pattern and a file, and it returns every matching line, the way grep in PowerShell should:

Select-String -Pattern 'ERROR' -Path C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log

Below, I map the grep options you already know to Select-String parameters and run each one on a sample log. Every result came from PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1, and I call out where the two differ.

This Tutorial Covers:

Use Select-String like grep on a file

Here’s the sample log, saved as C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log. A second file, Archive\web.log, sits in a subfolder for the recursive searches later:

2026-10-19 08:00:01 INFO  Service started on WEB01
2026-10-19 08:05:12 WARN  Disk C: at 85% on WEB01
2026-10-19 08:07:45 ERROR Connection to SQL01 failed: timeout after 30s
2026-10-19 08:07:46 INFO  Retrying connection to SQL01
2026-10-19 08:07:50 ERROR Connection to SQL02 failed: login failed for svc-app
2026-10-19 08:10:00 INFO  Request from 10.0.4.21 to 10.0.4.35 completed
2026-10-19 08:11:15 INFO  Invoice 1042 total $25.00 sent
2026-10-19 08:12:30 INFO  Errors reset by admin

Now the first search, the PowerShell version of grep ERROR app.log:

Select-String -Path C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log -Pattern 'ERROR'

Output:

C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log:3:2026-10-19 08:07:45 ERROR Connection to SQL01 failed: timeout after 30s
C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log:5:2026-10-19 08:07:50 ERROR Connection to SQL02 failed: login failed for svc-app
C:\psfaqs\WebLogs\app.log:8:2026-10-19 08:12:30 INFO  Errors reset by admin

Grep in PowerShell: Select-String finding ERROR lines in a log file — Select-String returns the file, line number and line (PowerShell 7)

Each result shows the path, the line number and the line, so you get grep -n for free. The path is shortened when the file sits under your current folder, as in the screenshot.

Look at the last result. Errors reset matched because Select-String ignores case, while grep is case-sensitive by default. If you only need the line text, here’s how to find a string and return just the line.

grep options and their Select-String equivalents

Most grep flags have a direct match. The pattern is a .NET regular expression in PowerShell, much like grep -E:

grep	What it does	Select-String equivalent
`grep text file`	Search a file	`Select-String -Pattern text -Path file`
`-i`	Ignore case	Default (add `-CaseSensitive` for grep’s default)
`-v`	Lines that don’t match	`-NotMatch`
`-w`	Whole word	`-Pattern '\bword\b'`
`-F`	Plain text, no regex	`-SimpleMatch`
`-e a -e b`