PowerShell Copy-Item: Copy Files and Folders (With Examples)

Copy-Item is the PowerShell cmdlet that copies files and folders. Give it a -Path and a -Destination, and add -Recurse when you’re copying a folder with everything inside it:

Copy-Item -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports\q3-sales.xlsx -Destination C:\psfaqs\Backup
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Backup -Name

Output:

q3-sales.xlsx

That’s the whole idea. The details matter, though, because Copy-Item has a few habits that surprise people, like creating a file where you expected a folder, or nesting a folder inside itself on the second run.

I’ll walk through each case with the output I got in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1. Both versions behaved the same in every example here.

Copy-Item syntax and parameters

Copy-Item [-Path] <string[]> [[-Destination] <string>] [-Recurse] [-Force]
          [-Filter <string>] [-Include <string[]>] [-Exclude <string[]>] [-PassThru] [-WhatIf]

Parameter	What it does
-Path	The file or folder to copy. Wildcards such as *.xlsx are allowed
-Destination	Where the copy goes. Put a new file name here to rename while copying
-Recurse	Copies a folder’s subfolders and files, not just the top level
-Force	Copies over read-only files
-Filter	One wildcard pattern, applied by the file system (fastest)
-Include / -Exclude	One or more patterns; they only work when -Path ends in \*
-PassThru	Returns the copied items, so you can see what was copied
-WhatIf	Shows what would be copied without copying anything

You’ll also see the aliases copy, cp and cpi in other people’s scripts. They all run Copy-Item, but spell it out in scripts you share.

To move instead of copy, see moving a file to a folder.

Copy a file and rename it

To copy and rename in one step, put the new file name in -Destination. Here I add today’s date to the name:

$today = Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd'
Copy-Item -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports\q3-sales.xlsx -Destination "C:\psfaqs\Backup\q3-sales-$today.xlsx"
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Backup -Name

Output:

q3-sales-2026-09-28.xlsx

For more renaming patterns, see how to copy and rename files in PowerShell.

How do I copy files from one folder to another in PowerShell?

Add \* to the end of the source folder and use -Recurse. This copies everything inside Reports, including the Monthly subfolder, straight into Backup:

Copy-Item -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports\* -Destination C:\psfaqs\Backup -Recurse
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Backup -Recurse -Name

Output:

Monthly
budget.xlsx
notes.txt
q3-sales.xlsx
readme.txt
scratch.tmp
Monthly\august.txt
Monthly\september.txt

The \* is what tells Copy-Item to copy the contents. Without it, you copy the folder itself.

Copy the folder itself

Point -Path at the folder and name the new folder in -Destination. With -Recurse, Copy-Item creates Archive and Reports for you:

Copy-Item -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -Destination C:\psfaqs\Archive\Reports -Recurse
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Archive -Recurse -Name

Output:

Reports
Reports\Monthly
Reports\budget.xlsx
Reports\notes.txt
Reports\q3-sales.xlsx
Reports\readme.txt
Reports\scratch.tmp
Reports\Monthly\august.txt
Reports\Monthly\sept