diff --git a/packages/babel-cli/bin/babel/index.js b/packages/babel-cli/bin/babel/index.js
index 7b01cf9336..3235ad51ef 100755
--- a/packages/babel-cli/bin/babel/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-cli/bin/babel/index.js
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@ if (commander.extensions) {
 var errors = [];
 
 var filenames = commander.args.reduce(function (globbed, input) {
-  return globbed.concat(glob.sync(input));
+  var files = glob.sync(input);
+  if (!files.length) files = [input];
+  return globbed.concat(files);
 }, []);
 
 each(filenames, function (filename) {