Show the Finder path bar to copy a folder's path

You need the full path of the folder you are looking at — to paste into Terminal, a config file, or a support ticket. Turn on the path bar with Option+Cmd+P, then right-click the folder's segment at the bottom of the window, hold Option, and choose Copy … as Pathname. The complete /Users/you/… path lands on your clipboard, ready to paste.

Show the path bar first

1. Open the folder in Finder.
2. Choose View → Show Path Bar, or press Option+Cmd+P.
3. The strip at the bottom now shows every folder in the trail; the rightmost segment is the folder you are in.

The path bar gives you a clickable target for each folder in the hierarchy, so you can copy the path of any level — not just where you are standing.

Copy the path from a segment

1. Right-click (or Control-click) the folder segment you want in the path bar.
2. In the menu, hold down Option. The Copy "…" item changes to Copy "…" as Pathname.
3. Click it. The clipboard now holds the full POSIX path, for example /Users/you/Projects/site/build.

The Option key is the whole trick: without it you copy the folder itself, with it you copy the text of its path. This behaves the same on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. Paste it wherever you need — a cd command, a script, a form field.

Even faster: the keyboard shortcut

If the folder (or a file) is already selected in the main list, you don't need the menu at all:

• Select the item and press Cmd+Option+C to copy its path as text directly.
• To grab the path of the folder you are inside, select it in its parent window first, then press the same shortcut.
• Working in Terminal? Drag any file or folder from Finder into a Terminal window and its path is inserted automatically — no copy step at all.

Between the path bar's right-click menu and Cmd+Option+C, you never have to retype a path by hand again.

# prefer scripting? show the path bar with one command
defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool true
killall Finder

# undo — hide it again
defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool false
killall Finder

More ways to grab a path

The path bar is the visual route; there are keyboard and menu-bar routes too. See how to copy a file path on Mac for the full set of methods, including copying from the Get Info window.