The present disclosure is directed toward systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for generating and maintaining an intelligent, web-based digital content clipboard for viewing and performing batch actions on copied content items. In particular, based on a client device request to copy a content item from a web-based folder, the disclosed systems can generate and add an item reference for the copied content item to a batch action clipboard. The disclosed systems can perform batch actions on multiple digital content items together with a single web-based batch action. The disclosed systems can also intelligently provide a clipboard element for display that is selectable to view item references representing content items copied to the batch action clipboard, along with a set of available batch actions for performing on one or more of the copied content items.