How-to guide
Duplicate an Item With Its Subitems in monday.com (2026)
Duplicating an item in monday.com copies its subitems too. What native Duplicate does, an automation gotcha to avoid, and how to copy subitems to other items.
Updated Published
Direct answer: yes, duplicating an item in monday.com duplicates its subitems too. Right-click the item (or open its item menu) and choose Duplicate. monday.com’s support docs confirm that “when you duplicate an item, a group, or a board of items that contains subitems, the subitems will also duplicate.” What native duplication can’t do is copy subitems onto items that already exist. That’s cloning, and it needs a workaround or an app.
What does native Duplicate do with subitems?
Native duplication carries subitems along at all three levels: item, group, and board. monday.com’s “All about subitems” support article states it plainly: “When you duplicate an item, a group, or a board of items that contains subitems, the subitems will also duplicate.”
So for the common case — “I need another copy of this item, subtasks included, on this board” — you don’t need anything beyond the built-in Duplicate. The copies keep their names and column values. Rename and reassign from there.
Why did the duplicate get double subitems?
A recurring community complaint: you duplicate an item and the copy has twice the subitems. The cause is almost always an automation. If your board runs a recipe along the lines of “when an item is created, create subitems,” a duplicate counts as a created item — so the copy receives the subitems that came along with duplication and a fresh recipe-generated set on top.
Two fixes:
- Pause the creation-triggered recipe before duplicating in bulk, then turn it back on.
- Move subitem creation to a trigger that duplicates won’t fire, such as a specific status change you set deliberately.
How do you copy subitems to an item that already exists?
Duplicate always produces a new item. If your target item already exists (“give this deliverable the same eight subtasks as that one”), you’re cloning, and monday.com has no native clone-subitems-to-another-item feature.
The native manual route, from the same support article: select the subitems on the source item, duplicate them, then move the duplicates to the desired item. It works, one target item at a time. At ten items it’s a chore; at fifty it’s an afternoon.
The bulk route is SubItems Pro’s Clone tab:
- Multi-select the target items on your board and open the SubItems Pro view.
- In the Clone tab, pick the source item whose subitems you want.
- Untick any subitems you don’t need this time.
- Toggle Include column values (on copies values, off copies names only) and run.
Every selected target gets the subitem set in one pass. Clone does not copy updates, files, or activity history — column data only. The free plan includes 20 actions per month (one action = one subitem cloned), enough to verify it on real data. Full walkthrough: copy subitems to another item in monday.com.
What if you rebuild the same subitem set over and over?
Stop duplicating ad hoc and keep a template item: one permanently well-structured item, named something like “Template — Client Onboarding”, parked in its own group with subitems and values maintained in one place. When new work needs that structure, clone from it. Compared with automation recipes, the template item is easier to change (edit the item, not the recipe) and works on items that already exist. All the template approaches (recipes, board templates, item defaults, and this pattern) are compared in monday.com subitem templates.
Which approach fits which job?
| You want to… | Native? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate one item with its subitems | Yes | Right-click the item → Duplicate |
| Duplicate a group or whole board, subitems included | Yes | Same behavior at group and board level |
| Copy subitems onto one existing item | Manual workaround | Duplicate the subitems, then move them to the target item |
| Copy subitems onto many existing items | No | SubItems Pro Clone — one source, all selected targets |
| Put the same subitem set on every new item automatically | Partially | Automation recipe chain, or a template item you clone from |
If your case is in the first two rows, close this tab and go duplicate the item.
Frequently asked questions
Does duplicating an item in monday.com include its subitems?
Yes. monday.com's support documentation confirms that when you duplicate an item, a group, or a board that contains subitems, the subitems duplicate as well, including their column values.
Why did my duplicated item end up with double subitems?
Usually an automation. If a recipe creates subitems when an item is created, it can fire on the duplicate too, on top of the subitems that came along with the duplication. Pause creation-triggered recipes before duplicating in bulk.
Can I copy subitems from one item to another existing item natively?
Not directly. The native route is manual: select the subitems, duplicate them, then move the duplicates to the target item. That's workable for one item, slow for many. Apps like SubItems Pro clone one item's subitems to any number of selected items in one operation.
Does SubItems Pro's Clone copy updates and files too?
No. Clone copies subitem names and, optionally, their column values via the 'Include column values' toggle. Updates, files, and activity history stay on the source item's subitems.
What's the best way to reuse the same subitem checklist repeatedly?
Keep one well-structured template item per board and clone its subitems onto new work as needed, or use an automation that creates a fixed subitem set when an item is created. Each has trade-offs. See our subitem templates guide.