Get-Clipboard.md

external help file	Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management.dll-Help.xml
Locale	en-US
Module Name	Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
ms.date	11/01/2025
online version	https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-clipboard?view=powershell-7.4&WT.mc_id=ps-gethelp
schema	2.0.0
aliases	gcb
title	Get-Clipboard

Get-Clipboard

SYNOPSIS

Gets the contents of the clipboard.

SYNTAX

Get-Clipboard [-Raw] [<CommonParameters>]

DESCRIPTION

The Get-Clipboard cmdlet gets the contents of the clipboard as text. Multiple lines of text are returned as an array of strings similar to Get-Content.

Note

On Linux, this cmdlet requires the xclip utility to be in the path. On macOS, this cmdlet uses the pbpaste utility.

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Get the content of the clipboard and display it to the command-line

In this example we have copied the text "hello" into the clipboard.

Get-Clipboard

hello

PARAMETERS

-Raw

Gets the entire contents of the clipboard. Multiline text is returned as a single multiline string rather than an array of strings.

Type: System.Management.Automation.SwitchParameter
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

CommonParameters

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutVariable, -OutBuffer, -PipelineVariable, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

INPUTS

None

You can't pipe objects to this cmdlet.

OUTPUTS

System.String

By default, this cmdlet returns the content as an array of strings, one per line. When you use the Raw parameter, it returns a single string containing every line in the file.

NOTES

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Get-Clipboard:

• All platforms:
  • gcb

Support for this cmdlet on macOS was added in the PowerShell 7.0.0 release.

RELATED LINKS

Set-Clipboard