Copy a page tree, or copy the space?
These are different jobs with different tools, and picking the wrong one costs an afternoon. Most people asking how to copy a Confluence space need the free built-in page-tree copy. This page is about telling which case you are in.
Four questions that decide it
| If this is true | You want |
|---|---|
| Everything you need sits under one parent page, and you do not mind links pointing back at the original | Copy page tree. Free, built in |
| You want a consistent starting structure for future spaces, not a copy of this one | Space templates. Free, built in |
| You have Premium and only need the access rules matched | Copy space permissions. Built in, Premium only |
| You need a new space holding everything, with links that work inside it, and the permissions carried | An app. Confluence Cloud cannot do this at any plan level |
Copy page tree, in detail
Open the top page of what you want, use the ••• menu, choose Copy, tick Include child pages, pick a destination.
Carries: the pages, the hierarchy below your starting page, attachments, labels, page restrictions.
Does not carry:
- Working internal links. Links in the copies still open the originals. This is the big one and it has its own page.
- Page comments, and version history. Copies start at version 1.
- Anything above your starting page, and nothing about the space itself: not the space, not its permissions, not its settings.
This covers more cases than people expect. A lot of Confluence spaces are, in practice, one tree under one parent page. If yours is, and the link behaviour is acceptable, you are done, for free, in about thirty seconds. Check before looking at anything paid.
How to check whether your space really is one tree
Open the space's content tree in the sidebar and count the top-level pages. One, or one plus a couple of strays you do not need, means a page-tree copy will do. Six unrelated top-level pages means you would be doing six copies and then rebuilding the arrangement by hand, which is where this stops being the cheap option.
Space templates, in detail
If what you actually want is "every new project space should start out like this", templates are the right tool and a copy is the wrong one. Create a space from a template and you get the predefined structure every time, without maintaining a master space that people edit by accident.
The limit: a template is a starting point, not a copy. It will not reproduce an existing space's content, attachments or permissions.
Worth being honest with yourself here. "Copy this space for the new project" and "new projects should look like this" sound similar and lead to different tools. If you expect to do it again next quarter, you want a template.
The full-space case
The gap none of the above closes is creating a new space that contains everything, with internal links repointed so the copy refers to itself, and the space permissions carried on any plan.
Atlassian has tracked this as CONFCLOUD-3191 since 2005. It has over 880 votes, several hundred watchers and more than 150 linked support cases, and remains open. Atlassian's own comment on it directs customers to the Marketplace.
Common reasons people end up here rather than in the page-tree case:
- Cloning a project space as the starting point for the next project, where the structure matters and so do the permissions.
- Making a frozen copy before a restructure, so there is something to refer back to that is not going to change under you.
- Splitting one space into two for teams that have diverged.
- Handing a client or department their own copy of a working space.
Clone Space for Confluence handles that case: a new space, every page in the same hierarchy, attachments, labels, the permission configuration on any plan, and links and macro references repointed to the new space. It shows you a free report of what it will and will not copy before writing anything, holds no delete permission at all, and runs entirely on Atlassian. Free for up to ten users.
A warning about the thing that looks easiest
Exporting a space and re-importing it is often the first idea, and it is usually the wrong one for copying within a single site. It is a different operation with its own constraints around keys, users and conflicts, and teams that try it generally end up back at one of the options above having spent a day on it.
What none of them do
Three things are not available by any method, which is worth knowing before you pick:
- Page comments. Confluence does not expose them for copying.
- Version history. Copied pages start at version 1 whichever route you take.
- Copying to a different Confluence site. That is migration, not copying, and Atlassian's own cloud-to-cloud tooling is the route.
If you are on Data Center
Confluence Data Center has had a native Copy Space under Space tools since version 8.3. Use it; none of the above applies to you.
This genuinely trips people up, because search results for "copy a Confluence space" mix Data Center and Cloud answers freely, and the Data Center answer reads like the feature simply exists.