diff --git a/cmd/podman/containers/cp.go b/cmd/podman/containers/cp.go
index 5231066a2e..faeb7bd96e 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/containers/cp.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/containers/cp.go
@@ -382,6 +382,8 @@ func copyToContainer(container string, containerPath string, hostPath string) er
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		defer os.Remove(tmpFile.Name())
+
 		_, err = io.Copy(tmpFile, os.Stdin)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -389,6 +391,7 @@ func copyToContainer(container string, containerPath string, hostPath string) er
 		if err = tmpFile.Close(); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+
 		if !archive.IsArchivePath(tmpFile.Name()) {
 			return errors.New("source must be a (compressed) tar archive when copying from stdin")
 		}